Tatas to consolidate large IT firms with TCS
By agencies   |   Friday, 27 May 2005, 19:30 IST
Printer Print Email Email
NEW DELHI: The Tata Group is planning to consolidate its IT firms for greater synergy. The bigger IT companies, Tata Elxsi and Tata Infotech, are likely to be the first to be integrated into Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Smaller companies like Tata Technologies and Tata Interactive Systems may not be brought into the fold right away because they may lose their niche character after consolidation, Phiroz Vandrevala, executive vice-president, TCS, said. He added that TCS was working more closely with VSNL and Tyco Electronics, but integration of these companies and the IT services business was not on the cards for the moment. Throwing some light on the company’s overseas issue plan, Vandrevala said, TCS is evaluating proposals from overseas stock exchanges other than those in the U.S., to raise funds. The issue is expected to be launched only after August this year, though a decision on this could be taken sooner. “We are open to the idea of listing on stock exchanges other than those in the U.S. However, no decision has been taken in this regard. We have received proposals from several exchanges and are being wooed by them,” Vandrevala said. He, however, said that the entire issue would crystalize after August. “Proposals from other exchanges say that there are a lot of regulatory issues involved in U.S. exchanges. We’ll have to evaluate that if other exchanges don’t have premium deficiency, that is, if I can get the same premium in another exchange without the regulatory hassles and the costs, then we should look at the proposals. And that’s how we’ll evaluate,” he explained. According to Vandrevala, TCS is seeing growth across all geographies and verticals it is focused on. Also while existing products continue to get good customer response, new products from TCS will likely be in the research and other IPR space-like the bioinformatics software BioSuite. “IT services will grow at about 25 percent this year and our performance will be in line with the industry,” he said, while acknowledging that a delay in the NHS project start could impact revenue expectations in the current quarter.

siliconindia