Aricent eyeing mid-ticket buy under $100 M

Surabhi Agarwal, New Delhi
The Financial Express
Telecom software solutions provider, Aricent is scouting for acquisitions in niche areas like system integration and consulting. The company has over $50 million of cash on its books and is looking at a mid-ticket acquisition under $100 million range.

Sudip Nandy, CEO of Aricent, which reported revenue of $460 million for the financial year ending March 2009 said that the company is looking at newer capabilities to its existing portfolio and geography is not a criteria for Aricent. “We have three business units along with our global innovation arm frog design, the acquisition could be in any of these spaces,” he said.

The company is scheduled to meet in mid-August to chalk out its acquisition strategy. As far as the size of the deal is concerned, Nandy said that it could be anywhere within the $100 range. “What we are looking at is a mix of strategy and culture,” he added. The company will look at part cash and part stock to finance the acquisition.

Aricent in which, private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts (KKR) holds over 60% had received additional funding from KKR and Bahrain based-The Family Office in September last year.

Moreover, the company also plans to list on the bourses in the next three years’ time. Recently, Aricent had announced its plans to up its India headcount by 10-15% and hire between 800-1,200 people during the current financial year. The company’s present headcount is at 8,000 employees out of which 6,000 are based out of India. Nandy said that the hiring is on track adding that the rationale behind it is to increase focus on the service providers as the company has so far been mainly working for the telecom equipment providers.