OpenArc software to go public by year end
OpenArc Systems Management (Pvt) Ltd, a leading software company established in 1991 will be the very first, Sri Lankan software company with a diversified group to go public by year end, officials said.
The company primarily offers software solutions to Banking and Finance, Security trading and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and it runs its own IT school to which trains software engineers.
Daya Hettiarachchi
“OpenArc has recently completed its Private Placement of shares and diluted 19 per cent shares to Japanese investors to raise US$ 2.5 million. With this achievement the company was further consolidated with sufficient capital for future development and we will be going for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) late this year,” Daya Hettiarachchi, Chairman/CEO OpenArc told the Business Times.
He said the company will formally launch the IPO plan to all prospective investors using OpenArc UniSETS Internet based, unified software platform for Stock Markets and UniIPO the Internet based IPO management software which is a unique and pioneering product developed by OpenArc, on Wednesday, March 19.
Diversification
The group started its diversification process on top of existing businesses in Software and Education and has identified Real Estate, Green Energy solutions, Industrial Automation and Tourism as major areas for future business expansion.
“OpenArc Properties, OpenArc Engineering and OpenArc Leisure are the new companies that we set up in these areas,” Mr. Hettiarachchi added.
The company invested in some strategic real estate properties and made 90 per cent annualised return on those real estate transactions showing very high potential that exists in the post-war Sri Lanka, he said.
“The company has made a small investment in a hotel coming up in Nuwara Eliya, which is due to be opened in December this year for which OpenArc has agreed to provide a total software solution,” he said, adding that OpenArc has also acquired a small software company called Ascensor Partners, which has been in the international marketing of some software products that the company has developed for the hospitality industry.
“OpenArc is now consolidating the operations in this sector and has laid foundation for the next commercial product under the name of MyHotel.lk to be developed with the help of Ascensor, the new company,” he said. The company signed an MOU with Ascensor Partners and the CEO of Ascensor who is a Canadian citizen with International experience in Software Marketing was appointed as the Director International Marketing. “We want to commence our international marketing network and launch international partnerships with prospective business partners in selected countries such as Dubai, USA, Canada, Japan, South Africa, Kenya, Denmark, Norway, Australia Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and the Maldives,” he said, adding that OpenArc has already got partnerships in some of the above mentioned countries through Ascensor.
OpenArc also launched OpenArc Engineering Solutions (Pvt) Ltd (OES) which is presently marketing green energy solutions such as assembling and selling of LED bulbs, Installation of solar panels with net-metering solutions with Ceylon Electricity Board. This company will focus on Industrial Automation solutions as well, Mr. Hettiarachchi added.
“Our Japanese investors formed the Japanese arm of OpenArc under OpenArc Group, Japan and we commenced software outsourcing business in Japan through this new venture.” Mr. Hettiarachchi said that OpenArc signed an MOU with Edirisinghe Trust and Investment to integrate two InBank installations that they are presently running at Swarnamahal and ETI Financial Services within group companies, and implement SkyBank core banking and finance software solution in the future at ETI Bank that they intend launching in the future.
The company completed and delivered its very first Japanese software development project to Japanese Company that has entered in to partnership with OpenArc. Mr. Hettiarachchi added they want to further consolidate their partnership with Japanese companies and undertake more outsourcing jobs.
IPO management on net
“We want to launch the product UnilPO, which is one of the modules of UniSETS meant for IPO management on the Internet. This is a pioneering product we have developed aiming at our own IPO to be managed on the Internet. Of course it will be open for any other company going public to use for their IPOs. We shall launch this at the CEO forum scheduled this Wednesday,” he added.
“Further, we will be launching the country’s very first, Mobile and Internet Payment platform namely, SkyPay which is an integral part of SkyBank core banking solution. Unlike legacy systems in core banking, we have built these modern banking tools in to our core banking solution. SkyMessenger is another example which is a SMS engine that generates SMS alerts within SkyBank. All finance companies may now implement a mobile payment solution to its customers using SkyPay platform and the SkySwitch switching system that will talk to new Electronic Funds Transfer system at Lanka Clear,” he added.
He said the company also wants to launch OpenArc Holdings as the group holding company and establish the five subsidiary companies for Education, Software, Leisure, Real Estate and Engineering. He said that 22 years ago the company was started with a small IT Training division to develop human resource skills for its own software development and also to cater to industry needs. “The company separated its training division and formed a new public company, OpenArc School of Business and Technology Ltd., in 1995 with the intention of offering shares to public in the future but with a non-profit motive,” he said.
OpenArc started commercial operations in 1992 and invested in the very first software product development project ‘StockPro’ for Stock brokering firms in the stock market, which became the market leader and captured 80 per cent of the market – 11 out of 14 stockbrokers in the country used the StockPro product at that time. Mr. Hettiarachchi recollected the history of OpenArc and mentioned that with new UniSETS trading platform it will re-enter this market.
In mid 1990s, the company developed its second commercial software product called ‘ShareWare’ for quoted company secretaries to handle IPOs, and manage share ledgers with Dividend issues, Right Issues and Bonus Issues and around 25 companies in the Colombo Stock Exchange presently use latest versions of this product.
The company also offered software services as well for any quoted company to manage IPOs, Dividend, Rights and Bonus Issues using this product.
Last year OpenArc School successfully launched Human Resource development course for hospitality (hotels) industry which was a government sponsored project where OpenArc School was also selected as an education partner. This has been continuing with many batches and it is intended to cater to the ever increasing demand in the post-war hospitality industry.