Kale Consultants, already in the recovery mode due to recent wins, firmed up today after the company announced that is has bagged a new order in the airline segment.

The scrip of the airline software company jumped up 4% to Rs 33.45 on BSE in early trades. Volumes were around 200 shares on the counter on BSE.

New order wins and tie ups, of late, have been helping invigorate the scrip. From a 52-week low of Rs 23.10 on 31 March 2003, Kale Consultants has gained 44% to Rs 33.45. This, though, is still is a far cry from times when it had surged to around Rs 800 in early 2000, when the IT sector boom was at its peak.

The company announced on Tuesday that it has added new customers to its credit - a large South Asian Carrier (for providing sales audit service) and KL airport service (for implementation of MERCURY). The company has been expanding its Malaysian business through its Malaysian JV – Antah Kale Sdn Bhd.

In April 2003, Kale Consultants (KCL) said it was selected by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) as one of the two suppliers for the latter's neutral fare proration service to airlines. Its product catering to the market for passenger ticket proration is titled Apex. This product is capable of handling the most complex special prorate and code share agreements. It eliminates manual proration calculations, leading to accuracy in interline billing and considerable productivity gains.

A few months ago, KCL entered into a development and commercialisation agreement with IATA to jointly create a product called 'CEO Cockpit' targeted at airline CEOs.

KCL, which went public in 1999, has three development centres in India and six international offices. Besides airlines, banking is another vital domain for KCL. KCL's banking division provides solutions for retail banking, trade finance and e-banking.

KCL has identified business process outsourcing (BPO) as one of the new thrust areas for growth.

KCL reported a 54.6% growth in net profit to Rs 3.14 crore (Rs 2.03 crore) on a flat sales of Rs 49.95 crore (Rs 49.53 crore) for FY 2002-03.