``The company will spend Rs 50 crore in the next six months on buying out a software company each in Singapore and the US as part of entering into software business,'' ZCL chairman and managing director Rajkumar Saraf told PTI today.

The company is also in the process of merging two software companies, Mumbai-based Zenith Infotech and Singapore-based Zenith Soft, with ZCL for offering comprehensive hardware and software services to its customers under one roof like Wipro and HCL, Saraf said.

These three-year old software companies, 100 per cent owned by Saraf family, have posted a turnover of over Rs 11 crore and Rs seven crore respectively and a combined profit of Rs one crore during the last financial year, he added.

Saraf family holds 60 per cent shares in the ZCL, he said adding thecapital base of the company was expected to go up from the present Rs nine crore to Rs 15 crore after the merger.

The timing of the merger and the swap ratios would be decided only after the statutory modalities for the merger like Reserve Bank of India (RBI) permission and approval of shareholders were completed, he added.

Post-merger, ZCL would market internet-based products and would focus on project-based customised software contracts mostly in the US and Europe, he said, adding Zenith Infotech and Zenith Soft were already having 175 engineers on their rolls.

However, ZCL, which was expected to cross a turnover of Rs 200 crore in 1998-99, had no plans to come out with public issue in the next six months, he added.

ZCL would also come out with a range of computer notebooks during the year to retain its leadership in home PC segment in the country and to effectively compete with its multi national companies (MNC) and domestic competitors, which include IBM, Hewlett-Packard, HCL and Wipro, hesaid.

Like all its other products, ZCL would develop notebooks in house, which enables it to incorporate flexibility in models and pricing, he said.

The company would continue with its present market strategy of `MNC quality at Indian prices' targeting middle and upper middle class segment of the market, he added.

To a query, he said that the company wants to remain a high-volume-low-cost PC firm and has got its products certified by the US-based National Software Testing Laboratories.