The Hindu Business Line : Aztec chief trims stake

, AZTEC's Founder and Chairman, Mr S. Parthasarathy, has progressively reduced his equity stake in the company over the past eight quarters to less than three per cent from about 10 per cent. His current holding stands at 11.6 lakh shares or around 2.64 per cent of Aztec Software and Technology Services Ltd's paid-up capital.

Mr Parthasarathy told Business Line that he does not have any specific plans to exit the company completely. However, Mr Parthasarathy aims to be an angel investor and provide seed funding to start-ups. "I am actively exploring options to invest in early stage ventures, both in the technology and non-technology space," Mr Parthasarathy said.

Though there are a lot of venture capitalists, hardly any of them focus on the early stage companies, he said. "There's a need for early stage funding, as lots of exciting things are happening, especially in the technology space. I see a big opportunity to play in the technology space, where I feel I can add lot of value from my experience," Mr Parthasarathy said.

Mr Parthasarathy was actively managing the company's operations till January 2004, when Mr V. Chandrashekharan was brought in as Aztec's Managing Director and the CEO.

The Aztec stock has gained substantially since the beginning of the current calendar. It has appreciated 160 per cent since January this year when it was trading at around Rs 67.25. On Monday the Aztec stock closed at Rs 175.35, about 2.88 per cent lower than the previous close. During the same period, the CNX IT index has gained by about 30 per cent.

Meanwhile, Reliance Growth Fund, a scheme of Reliance Mutual Fund and Reliance Capital Asset Management Ltd, has recently increased its stake in the company to over five per cent of the paid-up capital. Reliance Capital's stake stood at 21.97 lakh shares, aggregating to 5.08 per cent of Aztec's total paid-up capital as on December 12, 2005.