Spice to invest Rs1,000 crore to expand business

According to mobile handset company Spice Mobility, it would invest Rs1,000 crore this fiscal to further expand its business through opening of new centres and new acquisitions. In the long run the company would also look at merging Spice Mobility with Spice i2i in a move aimed at streamlining its various businesses.

"The company will be investing Rs1,000 crore during FY'11-12 to position itself as a mobile internet company and will also work to streamline its various operations under one fold," Spice Mobility chairman B K Modi told reporters in Noida.

The funds would go towards building new offices, regional centres and new employee hires. He added the resources would be generated internally.

For expansion of its Indian mobile retail market, Spice has created a seven cluster distribution model for which it plans to hire about 300 additional people to further strengthen customer relationship, according to Modi.

With the new logo it unveiled today, Spice Mobility aims to launch its new positioning campaign. The company also unveiled its dual SIM phone on the Android platform which it will launch next week.

"Earlier, we were known as a mobile phone company. Now we have merged our various divisions like devices, retail and value-added services into one and focus on mobile internet. Our market capitalisation stood at Rs2,400 crore," Modi added.

Taking forward its acquisition spree, the company is all set to buy Indonesia-based Nexian for which it has already raised $200 million and the Bangladesh-based Sprint, for which it will seek regulatory clearances.

The Spice group has a presence spanning many areas including, finance, infotainment and innovative technologies through companies like Spice Mobility, Spice Hotspot, Spice Digital, Spice Labs, SpiceI2I, S-Unno, Spice CSL, Spice BPO, Spice Online Retail, Spice Money (WSFL) and Spice World and Spice Cinemas.