HCL SCOUTS FOR BUYS AMID GLOBAL CREDIT CHURN

Hyderabad
The Economic Times (Bangalore edition)

HCL Technologies, a leading IT services provider, has identified 38 companies globally as possible acquisition targets. “We expect to lap up a few companies by 2012 and we are also willing to spend over a billion for a right fit company,” said HCL Technologies CEO Vineet Nayar.

The company reckons the move will help it cash in on the new opportunities arising from the global financial meltdown.

As part of its inorganic growth plan, HCL has chalked out a proactive matrix of eight identified areas and three possible ways to acquisitions. “We are actively looking at technology areas including engineering services, enterprise applications, infrastructure management, BPO and enterprise transformation services for acquisitions. Geographically, our focus areas are continental Europe, Japan and South Korea,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

With reserves aggregating to $600 million and a debt-free balance sheet, it will not be difficult for the Rs 7639.4-crore company to fund large acquisitions. “Size is not a criterion for us. Our focus is on companies that can bring in substantial expertise to our table, which can prepare us to offer new services and technologies. The acquisition sizes include ‘tuck in’ which are below $100 million and big ticket ‘transformation’ acquisitions which could change our existing business model,” he said. HCL has already made seven acquisitions and all of them were sub-$50 million deals.