 Ma Foi enters into IT solutions for HR
 Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd, India's largest staffing and HR service provider, announced in Chennai today its strategic diversification into IT through a wholly-owned subsidiary - Minvesta Infotech Ltd. Minvesta will be funded internally and have an equity base of Rs 1 crore, initially.
The group has closed the financial year 2005 with gross revenue of Rs 212.54 crore registering a growth of 65.08 per cent over last year.
Speaking after the inauguration of their new corporate office, K Pandia Rajan, MD & CEO of Ma Foi, said, "Ma Foi is growing at a CAGR of 75 per cent over the last 13 years. At this juncture, we are pleased to announce our strategic diversification into IT through a wholly-owned subsidiary - Minvesta Infotech Ltd - which will be funded internally and have an equity base of Rs 1 crore, initially."
Ma Foi will combine its expertise in HR domain with the experience it has accrued in HR-related IT in this venture. The 41-member technology group which will form the core of Minvesta, has 120 man years of experience in system development and product development. This venture will be led by Asokan Pichai as CEO.
Ma Foi has pioneered automation of several mission critical HR processes through intelligent use of IT from routine areas like time and attendance, workflow management and resource management to performance management systems which have reduced the time taken on annual appraisal drastically while retaining the human aspect of the process. The team has to its credit development of several advanced products most notable being Ma Foi's proprietary Personality Assessment Tool - an online psychometric testing tool based on Indian norms.
Financial Highlights - FY Jan - Dec 2005
(Unaudited):
Net revenue up from Rs 41.54 crore (Jan 04 -Dec 04) to Rs 62.35 crore (Jan 05 - Dec 05) 50.49 per cent.
PBT up from Rs 3 crore (Jan 04 -Dec 04) to Rs 5.55 crore (Jan 05 - Dec 05) 85 per cent.
Performance Highlights - FY 2005
Ma Foi continues to retain its leadership position in temp staffing with over 18,000 temp staff currently on its rolls. The single largest deputee scale up of 2,782 was done for a Pune-based MNC life insurance company. During 2005, 10,131 permanent placements were executed increasing the total personnel placements till date to over 77,000 across 31 countries.
During 2005, Ma Foi emerged as a preferred vendor for a number of US and Europe-based MNCs setting up their base in India. A significant share of revenue for the staffing services came through the India entry businesses - predominantly from companies in the BFSI, telecom, SPO and manufacturing segments. Ma Foi currently services over 163 Fortune 500 clients of which 30 are Fortune 50.
As a key strategic initiative for the current year, Ma Foi Academy, the career training business, which completed its first year of operations, has been integrated with the staffing solutions business. This strong backward integration measure along with the 'Hire-Train-Deputee' model doctored by the academy is expected to benefit the client and candidate community.
Ma Foi Global Search Services Ltd (MGSSL), the search subsidiary of Ma Foi, made 65 successful closures during the year of which 10 were CEO/COO placements, Pandia Rajan said. This takes the total placement done by the executive search to 708. Maximum revenue came in through placements in consumer/retail and IT/ITES verticals.
Cross-border search emerged as a strong niche area. The strategy of multi-country presence helped the company do a truly cross-border placement where a Pakistan-based client was anchored by the Singapore operations, and two of the top-level candidates were sourced by the Dubai and Malaysian offices.
Ma Foi Search business witnessed its largest single billing through the placement of a CEO for an MNC publishing house. Also, the year saw the first interim placement happen for a German manufacturing major for their operations in
Hyderabad.
Apart from this, MEtS, a comprehensive study on employment outlook carried out every quarter by MGSSL, is being linked to macro economic parameters with research inputs worked by ISB
Hyderabad.
Ma Foi Consulting Solutions Ltd (MCSL), the HR outsourcing and consulting arm of Ma Foi, became India's first payroll company to obtain the BS 7799 (ISMS Information Security Management System) certification. BS 7799 is an international standard that sets out the requirements of good practice for information security management. Getting this certification puts MCSL ahead of the other HR BPOs in the country and on a par with international service providers, as most UK and US clients prefer to deal with certified vendors where high level of data security is guaranteed.
In 2005, MCSL witnessed significant movement in off-shoring of recruitment processes from a number of overseas (in US, UK & Australia) recruitment companies to provide recruitment process offshoring (RPO) services like CV formatting, CV generation, short-listing, and headhunting.
The HR consulting business of MCSL successfully completed the Maharashtra Health System Development Project - a World Bank project. The project included training workshops conducted in 17 district hospitals for around 6,000 health service providers.
Operating performance by geography and industry sector
 The overseas operation's contribution to the top line increased to 10 per cent in 2005. Energy and BFSI practices fuelled the overseas operations. The launch of the energy practice has seen the permanent and temp staffing businesses of Ma Foi Middle East and Asia Pacific operations benefit significantly, Pandia Rajan said.
During the year Ma Foi London made considerable progress in the IT contract staffing services and also was instrumental in enabling cross-border assignment and RPO opportunities. They were also successful in gaining access to many of the India entry businesses at an early stage thereby giving Ma Foi the first-mover advantage.
Following its sign-up with MNC banks in Colombo for outsourcing their sales force and administrative staff on to its rolls, Ma Foi Lanka witnessed an upsurge in its temp staffing business during the year.
The international expertise corridor established by Ma Foi has not only helped in increasing cross-border migration of talent, but also in increasing the revenue from high value inter-country placements, he added.
Business Partner Operations
During the year, Ma Foi had set up 8 more business partners for its staffing business thereby enhancing its office network to 50 offices in India. The year saw Ma Foi Academy, the career training business of Ma Foi, initiate the process of expanding its business partner network across the country. Currently, Ma Foi Academy has signed up at 8 locations and is all set to increase the numbers in the months to come. The plan is to take it across to 100 locations.
Earlier in the day, C K Ranganathan, MD & CEO, Cavin Kare Limited, inaugurated the company's new facility on 49, Cathedral Road. The new facility will accommodate the entire corporate operations of Ma
Foi.
Ma Foi is a 13-year-old public limited company. Having started in 1992 in Chennai with a focus on recruitment services, Ma Foi has grown to become the largest HR services provider in India. It is committed to offer people and people-related services, enhancing the net worth of human capital.
Currently, Ma Foi has a presence in 8 countries through 58 offices - India, the UAE, UK, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Oman and the US - and over 1,334 clients including 163 Fortune 500 Companies. Ma Foi had posted revenue of Rs 122 crore for the year ended December 2004.
For further details on Ma Foi visit
www.mafoi.com
R Rangaraj
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