Tata Telecom was comfortably placed in a weak market on Friday after the company reported a 53% growth in net profit for Q3.

The scrip of the telecom equipment and solutions provider rose 2.2% to Rs 125 on BSE in early trades. The scrip, however, came off the day's high of Rs 126.90 by that juncture. Around 1,000 Tata Telecom shares changed hands on BSE in just a few minutes of trade.

The scrip came off a recent high of Rs 145.50 on 24 December 2002, shedding 17.5% to Rs 119.95 on 24 January 2003. In the very next session (27 January 2003), it surged 5.2% to Rs 126.30. The scrip had moved in a band of Rs 120-128 in the three trading sessions prior to the results.

For Q3 ended 31 December 2002, Tata Telecom has posted a 53% growth in net profit to Rs 5.30 crore (Rs 3.46 crore) on a 22.6% rise in net sales/income from operations to Rs 83.96 crore (Rs 68.44 crore).

TTL is riding the recent boom in the IT-enabled services  and business process outsourcing (call centre) industry. It is a dominant market player in the call centre solutions business with a 60% market share. The company is likely to get added business what with a number of multinationals planning to shift their call centre business to India.

TTL has set a four-pronged strategy for growth - dominate the call centre equipment business, strengthen Internet Protocol and data presence, explore inorganic growth and sharpen execution of current strategies.

TTL aims at becoming a totally integrated player providing communication solutions to its customers. To achieve this, it already has certain partnerships with local as well as international players like Avaya and Nice.

GE, a prominent name in the BPO industry in India, is TTL's largest client .

TTL belongs to the Tatas and the Avaya group (formerly a division of Lucent Technologies which has its roots in AT&T). The Indian promoter (the Tata group) holds 25.34% and the foreign promoter (Avaya) holds 25.5% of the total paid-up equity share capital of the company.