The board of Indra Sistemas, the diversified hi-tech group majority-owned by the Spanish government, approved at the weekend the decision to merge its three major operating subsidiaries into the main company, in order to strengthen its corporate identity prior to privatization. Indra announced its intention of taking its subsidiaries in systems integration, controlled access ticketing and electoral result calculation systems, and IT solutions for the defense sector in October. With the board’s go-ahead, it can now become a single entity, serving a wide variety of markets, including telecoms, transport and traffic control, trade and industry, finance and insurance, defense, and public administration and health. Indra’s capital is currently controlled by the Spanish State’s Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI), though Madrid plans to privatize the company in the first quarter of 1999. Indra has annual revenues of around $450m, and last year reported a net profit of $21m.
