The Financial Express, Tuesday, October 12, 2004

CHENNAI: Chennai-based Bahwan CyberTek, in an association with the UK-based Bahwan Exel group has won a $500 million deal for fourth-party logistics management from the Petroleum Development Oman LLC (PDO).

The contract, which is for a five-year period, has been won by the joint venture Bahwan Exel, in which Bahwan Cybertek holds 51% stake and the remaining is held by the Bahwan Exel group. The deal is to provide primary and secondary distribution for oil exploration and production firm PDO.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, chief executive officer (CEO), Bahwan CyberTek, S Durgaprasad, said that as part of the project, the transport management system would be implemented for PDO which would enable end-to-end transportation management and optimisation.

“Bahwan Exel will be responsible for general management, implementation of software, provision of logistics management services and health, safety and enviromental issues. On the other hand, Bahwan CyberTek will be providing IT infrastructure along with accountancy and treasury services for this project,” he said.

Mr Durgaprasad said the company had already started the migration process in July this year and the project was expected to go live by January next. The JV expects to make around 10% to 15% profits on the contract per annum.

PDO, which is a joint venture between the government of Oman (60% stake) and Royal Dutch/Shell group (34%) is expected to save around $22 million per annum through the project. “PDO which currently spends around $77 million per annum on logistics management will be able to bring this amount down to around $55 million by the end of the fifth year,” Mr Durgaprasad said.

Bahwan Cybertek, an associate company of the $1 billion Suhail Bahwan group of the Middle East, has its biggest offshore software development centre in Chennai. The company also has centres in the US and Middle East. Bahwan CyberTek which had a turnover of Rs 40 crore during 2003-04 is eyeing a turnover of 100 crore by March, 2005.