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NIIT guns for market share in education

Indian computer education and software services firm NIIT Ltd is aggressively seeking market share by introducing newer education products, the firm's chairman said on Wednesday.

"For the next six months, we are gunning for market share," Rajendra Pawar, NIIT's chairman told Reuters on the sidelines of a news conference. "It's the time to invest for serious players. We're not short of funds and have a debt-free balance sheet."

NIIT has been under a cloud since April when the firm warned investors that the global slowdown would result in a fall in operating profit of 30 to 40 per cent for the year to September.

Pawar said he was sticking to the earlier forecast.

NIIT, often referred to as the "Mcdonald's of education" for pioneering the franchisee model for education delivery, is India's largest computer education firm with more than 2,228 centres including over 100 abroad.

"We will launch many more newer education products, invest heavily in communicating to the right target audience and in retraining and retooling our employees to improve market share," Pawar, who is also the founder of NIIT, elaborated.

Almost half of New Delhi-based NIIT's year to September 2000 revenue of Rs 12.37 billion came from its education business whose domestic size is estimated at Rs 15 billion.

"We should touch 3,000 centres by September," Pawar said.

Software services contribute the other half of the 19-year old NIIT's net sales.

In May, the firm had said it planned to double the number of overseas education centres to 200 in the next six months. NIIT had also teamed up with US-based Microsoft Corp to offer training programmes in C# (pronounced C sharp) to Indian software developers.

NIIT provides software services for clients such as British Airways and Japan's Toshiba group.

CLIMBS CHINESE WALL

NIIT started with a measly 200 students in 1982 and has now some 600,000 on its rolls today. The firm provides computer education in 27 countries and forayed into China in 1999, by opening a centre at Shanghai.

"Unlike India where software exports are dominant, China has a huge domestic market," Pawar said. "We see China as a very big long-term market for us but it's a nascent market in many ways."

The number of Chinese students studying NIIT's software education courses in Mandarin and English as well crossed the 1,000 mark in September, Pawar said.

"They have the same kind of aspiration of going higher up in the social strata as Indian students," Pawar added.

NIIT has a joint venture with the provincial government in Shanghai and has signed up franchisees in a few more Chinese cities.

NIIT shares closed 2.0 per cent higher at Rs 445.75 while the 30-share benchmark index ended flat.

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