MICROCAPITAL STORY: India-Based Compulink Sees 1.8 Percent Uptick in Share Price After Announcing Contract to Provide SKS Microfinance of India With Software and Networking Systems

Compulink and SKS Microfinance, both from India, recently entered into a contract wherein Compulink will provide SKS with its entire suite of business applications. The new system will utilize Compulink’s proprietary “Whizible” framework on top of Microsoft’s Net Platform to link all 650 SKS branches using a set of web-based applications. The contract covers all of SKS’s core businesses including microcredit, microinsurance and health insurance as well as providing new accounting systems and a centralized IT infrastructure.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) saw this contract as a large win for Compulink. Shares of the company increased 1.83 percent to trade at .7 Indian Rupees, the equivalent of USD .98. This gain comes at a time when the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index (Sensex) dropped 2.41 percent and the dreary US economic outlook weighs heavily on Indian IT companies.

Compulink is an internet protocol (IP) driven software product firm established in India in 1994. Its flagship product is the “Whizible” suite of applications which is used by a number of leading international companies including Accenture, Canon, and Emerson. Its stated goal is to “…provide enterprise solutions to chosen verticals in the ‘Services Execution Management’ domain.”

SKS Microfinance was established in 1997 in Hyderabad, India by Vikram Akula. As of March, 2007 SKS had over 500,000 borrowers, a loan portfolio of over USD 63 million, a debt-to-equity ratio of 379 percent, and a return on assets of 1.75 percent. In 2003 the MFI received a rating of “Alpha minus” from Micro-Credit Ratings & Guarantees India Ltd. (M-CRIL). In addition to microloans, SKS also provides life and health insurance by means of a pilot program. As reported by MicroCapital earlier this month, SKS recently raised USD 37 million in a planned equity sell-off.

By Jake Keller

Additional Resources:

Compulink: Home, Whizible, stated goal,

SKS Microfinance: Home

Bombay Stock Exchange: Home, 1.83 percent

NDTV Profit: http://www.ndtvprofit.com/2008/02/05162609/IT-stocks-slip-on-gloomy-US-ec.html

Equity Bulls: http://www.equitybulls.com/admin/news2006/news_det.asp?id=25197

MIX Market: Home, 500,000 borrowers, USD 63 million, 379 percent, 1.75 percent

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