EdServ Softsystems' Q2 FY09 net profit was up at Rs 3.9 crore as against Rs 2.2 crore quarter-on-quarter. Revenues were up at Rs 11.2 crore as compared to Rs 4.6 crore QoQ.

S Giridharan, CEO, EdServ Softsystems, sees FY10 revenues at Rs 40-50 crore, profit after tax at Rs 18 crore.

Q: For this first half you have done sales of about Rs 16 crore. You have Rs 40 crore revenue target from the online tuition business over 12 months. For FY10, what is the revenue that we can expect from EdServ and also the EPS?

A: The revenue for this particular year would be anywhere between Rs 40-50 crore on the topline. We can expect a bottomline of about Rs 18 crore.

Q: That would mean the second half would see revenues of about Rs 35 crore?

A: Absolutely. In the second half, our plans are to go into the online tuition services for engineering students across India because we have recently acquired 2tion.com. We are upgrading that and now we are launching and our upgradation is complete now. This would probably service engineering students – there are more than 2.5 million engineering students across the country – across various universities wherein one can look at their subject to be clarified, to score high marks as well as to clear all their arrears. And they can tap the best of tutors online, any time anywhere, like from their homes. That is the product that we are rolling out now. Even if we tap 10% of the market segment, we are to do anywhere between Rs 10-15 crore in the six months itself. That is our plan.

The other thing is that we are also an associate training provider for Apex HiTech Institute, Ministry of Labour employment, wherein we work on the modular employable skills enhancement training, wherein we are also looking at doing quite a bit of business. Then we have a partners centre of over 250 centres that we are increasing from 250 to 1000 centres, on which the e-learning business as well as the college support businesses are going to happen. Then we are also going to adopt and run schools basically to improve upon the academic performance of the school students, thanks to this online tuition type of services as well as assessment based services where the student can improve their marks and also get on to the industry orientation skills. These are some of the plans we have for this.

Q: Going by the kind of response you have got from schools and from governmental and other education institutions, do you see any quantum jump in your earnings say in FY11 or FY12 or would this be very much the pro rata rate of growth. You would be managing about Rs 35 crore plus, a sedate rate of growth. How do you look at the ramp-up from thereon?