Rolta India in JV with defence major Thales

According to the release, the new company will be 51% owned by Rolta and 49% by Thales. The JV will develop communication and information software systems for defence and homeland security for domestic and international markets, it said.

The release also said, "… the JV will take advantage of technology transfer from Thales for developing state-of-the-art command control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (C4ISTAR) information systems for the domestic and international markets."

The joint venture expects to obtain regulatory approvals in two months.

Mumbai based Rolta India Limited provides software/information technology based engineering and geospatial solutions and services to customers within the country and abroad. It has executed projects in more than 35 countries.

Earlier on Aug 12, Rolta India Ltd had announced that the company was among the five top Indian IT Companies to be awarded the BS ISO/IEC 27001:2005 accreditation, an internationally acclaimed benchmark for information security. The assessment for the certification was conducted by BSI, the largest and management systems registrar in the world. The benchmark is based on the best current information security practices of leading British and international businesses and has met with international acclaim.

Rolta has reported a fairly good performance in Q4FY06 with revenues growing by 17.7% yoy and 1.8% qoq. Profits for the company have grown by 45.5% yoy and 7.0% qoq. EBITDA margins have also grown by an impressive 18.1% percentage points yoy to 43.8%. The company''s order book currently stands at Rs550 crore( Rs5.5 billion), to be executed over the next 24-30 months.

Rolta also has an exclusive partnership with Intergraph, a long-standing joint venture with the Shaw Group (Stone & Webster) and a partnership with CA (formerly Computer Associates) for eSolutions.

Defence and electronics major Thales had sales of more than $12.5 billion in 2005.

Meanwhile, on receipt of the news, Rolta stock surged by 4% to Rs219 at the NSE, recording volumes of over 35 lakh shares.