IT Consultants to invest Tk280cr to enhance infrastructure

IT Consultants Limited – a leading IT products and service provider in the country – is going to invest Tk280 crore for building a multi-storied tower, IT infrastructure, and multiple state-of-art data centres.

The company has decided to purchase 20 kathas of land in Tejgaon Industrial area at a cost of Tk35 crore to build ITC Tower for the purpose of developing its infrastructure.

The investment plan is subject to approval of the general shareholders. The company has fixed an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on 26 April to discuss the issue.

After getting the approval of the shareholders, the company will apply to the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) to get approval for constructing ITC Tower with 13 floors aside from the ground floor, and two basements, said officials.

IT Consultants is the first private third party payment processing company in Bangladesh, and the owner of Q-Cash – the largest payment platform in the country.

The company provides advanced infrastructure for transaction processing services to banks, financial institutions, government organisations and retailers. It also operates one of the largest ATM networks in the country.

At present, 37 member banks are using different electronic payment services of Q-Cash network.

Sources of fund

The company will bear around 30% of the cost of the new investment plan and the rest will be collected as term loans from banks, according to sources.

It will spend Tk76 crore from its own fund for purchasing land, while banks will provide Tk204 crore.

In the first phase, the company will take Tk50 crore, second phase Tk57 crore, and in the third phase, it will take 97 crore, which is subject to shareholders' approval, says the company in a disclosure on its website.

Why the enhancement plan

IT Consultants' new building will increase the capacity of the company as well as its data centre.

Anindya Sarkar, company secretary of IT Consultants, told The Business Standard, "We currently serve 37 banks, so storing bank data is very important. The company's own data centre will be enriched through infrastructure development."

"As our business expands, we need to enhance our data centre too. The company also has some plans of its own in the new building. The new building will be commercial, which is being built for the betterment of the company and shareholders."

"The number of data centres in the private sector in Bangladesh is very low. Our company has a data centre, which needs further expansion," he added.

Singapore-based holding company SiS Capital (Bangladesh) Pte is the major shareholder with 32.77% shares of IT Consultants Ltd.

The company started its journey in 2000 and SiS Capital joined it in 2011. Besides, Hong Kong-based Regent Pacific Limited holds 8.45% shares of the company.

IT Consultants got listed on the stock exchanges in 2016.

Its shares price closed at Tk36.40 at the end of Thursday's (9 March) trading session at the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).

According to its financial report, during the July-December period of the current fiscal year, the company's revenue jumped by 9% to Tk52.07 crore and net profit by 29.63% to Tk14.04 crore.

Earlier, in FY22 fiscal, it witnessed a 24% decline in revenue to Tk101.46 crore but its net profit increased by 21.3% to Tk24.02 crore. It had paid a 6% cash dividend to the shareholders.