INTERVIEW-Rediff (REDF.O) eyes acquisition - chairman
Reuters, (Anshuman Daga), BOMBAY, July 20,2000

India's leading Internet portal, Rediff.com, said on Thursday it has enough cash in hand to enable it to sustain operations for several years. Its chairman, Ajit Balakrishnan, told Reuters in a telephone interview from New York that the firm would be able to sustain itself as it was armed with $64 million in cash.

"We have a current cash burn rate roughly in the order of $1 million a month. I think the cash in our balance sheet is sufficient to last us for several years," he said.

The first quarter results announced by Rediff.com earlier this week showed the firm was on track to boost revenues and reduce its losses in the future, he added."One of the most important parts of our results is that our revenues have jumped and losses have declined. That is our important selling point," he said.

The five-year-old portal, which listed in the U.S. Nasdaq market in June, reported a net loss of $2.87 million in the first quarter ending June 2000 compared to $2.92 million in the previous quarter. Rediff's revenues grew 53 percent to $873,000 from $572,000 in the last quarter of 1999. Its loss per American Depositary Share fell to $0.136 in the latest quarter from $0.144 in the previous quarter.

On Wednesday, Rediff's shares ended $0-½ down at $14-? in a weak Nasdaq market. The ADR which listed at $22 on its first day of trading on June 14, is below its record $28. It is however trading above its offer price of $12. Rediff raised $55.2 million when it sold 4.6 million American Depositary Shares (ADRs) in its initial public offering.

With share prices of global market leaders down about 50 percent from record highs and scores of weaker stocks having fallen as much as 90 percent in price, Wall Street analysts are increasingly focusing on how soon companies turn profitable. Rediff's U.S. listing gives it the opportunity to offer stock options and it is planning a series of acquisitions to maintain its leading position in the domestic market.

Rediff registered page views of 109 million in June, ahead of the 80 million page views of diversified Indian Internet firm and the biggest private Internet service provider, Satyam Infoway Ltd . Satyam Infoway last week posted a 300 percent rise in its first quarter revenues to $7.20 million but its loss was also 245 percent higher at $3.99 million. Satyam Infoway's shares closed $0-¼ lower at $20-? at the Nasdaq market on Wednesday.

(Bombay newsroom, +91 22 265-9000 fax +91 22 264-1699, anshuman.daga@reuters.com))

Thursday, 20 July 2000 16:27:21 ENDS [nBOM145214]

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