Mr Arun Jain, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Polaris
Software Lab Ltd, saw his gross remuneration come down by 27 per cent
to Rs 85 lakh in 2007-08 compared with Rs 1.08 crore in the previous
year. This includes Rs 20 lakh (Rs 51.25 lakh) towards bonus, which
was calculated based on performance criteria determined by the
company's shareholders at the annual general meeting held in August
2006.
Some of the company's directors too got lower commission in 2007-08.
For instance, the commission of Mr Abhay Agarwal dropped to Rs 3.50
lakh during the year compared with Rs 4.98 lakh in the previous year.
Similarly, Mr Arvind Kumar's commission dropped to Rs 3.50 lakh (Rs
4.63 lakh). No stock options grants were provided during 2007-08 for
directors compared with 10,000 given to six of them in the previous
year, says the company's 2007-08 annual report.
For the year ended March 31, 2008, Polaris' net profit was Rs 73 crore
(Rs 101 crore) on revenues of Rs 1,117 crore (Rs 1,038 crore).
Polaris Retail – gaining ground
A notable feature in 2007-08 was increased profitability in Polaris'
subsidiary that provides software for the retail industry. Polaris
Retail InfoTech Ltd (PRIL) achieved a net profit of Rs 2.02 crore (Rs
78 lakh).
PRIL, through its products Retail Excel and Smart Store, has reached
to 15,000 point of sale counters across India. It is foraying into
international markets starting with West Asia and Africa, Mr Jain
said.
Polaris Retail won new clients such as Vishal Retail, Godrej Agrovet,
REI Agro, Masper, DSCL Hariyali Kisan Bazar and Indian Terrain. "We
expanded Polaris Retail to the West Asian market last year and this
year, we are looking to expand PRIL to Asia Pacific and Africa markets
as well," Mr Jain told Business Line.
Intellect – slow growth
The Intellect platform contributed around 23 per cent of annual
revenues. This is against the product business of more than 30 per
cent projected in 2002 when Polaris and OrbiTech Solutions, a Citibank
technology group company, were merged. Launched in 2004, Intellect was
the enhanced version of Polaris' OrbiOne suite of banking products.
OrbiOne was the proprietary product of OrbiTech.
In the last five years, the 'Intellect business' has grown to Rs 220
crore from Rs 60 crore.
Mr Jain said post OrbiTech merger, Polaris appointed McKinsey to
understand the global market players and 'right positioning' of the
product in the market place. The consultant recommended that 'Legacy
Modernisation' (migration of legacy systems to modern technology)
offered a good business opportunity as banks and financial
institutions would need to spend on this.
On the basis of the recommendation, Polaris shifted its focus to
position Intellect among top 20 global banks in the world to create
"lighthouse implementations" — Intellect implementations in leading
banks — such as Lloyds Bank in UK, National Bank of Abu Dhabi in West
Asia, Citibank in London, Deutsche Leasing in Germany and Shinsei in
Japan.
source: Business Line
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