Wipro eyeing acquisitions in India too: Premji

Wednesday, 18 October 2006, 19:30 IST
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Bangalore: Wipro Chairman Azim H. Premji said on Wednesday that the company was on the lookout for strategic acquisitions in consumer care as well as in the IT sector in India to sustain its inorganic growth. "Our acquisition strategy is not confined to overseas alone. We continue to look for acquisitions within the country as well as abroad. If they (companies) are strategically fit for our business growth, we will certainly be interested in evaluating them," Premji told reporters here. Maintaining the aggressive strategy that witnessed a string of overseas buyouts in the last couple of quarters, Premji hinted that the inorganic growth plan would continue in the remaining two quarters of the current fiscal (FY 2007). In the same context, Chief Financial Officer Suresh Senapaty said the company would not hesitate to go for big-ticket acquisitions if the deals benefited its strategic growth plans and profitability. "We may look for big deals that could be upwards of $20-25 million in the IT or consumer care space provided they contribute to our business growth and add value to our portfolio in the coming quarters," Senapaty said. Wipro began a string of buyouts in December after a two-year pause in its acquisition spree that followed the takeover of Nervewire Consulting, a Boston-based consulting firm. According to the company's financial statement for the second quarter (July-Sep) of this fiscal (FY 2007), a string of six acquisitions recently has contributed 1.37 billion in revenue to its global IT services and products business. The overseas firms acquired between December 2005 and July 2006 are mPower, New Logic, cMango, Enabler, Saraware and Quantech for a sum total of 8.7 billion ($189 million), including goodwill. The acquired firms also contributed 14 million towards the operating margins of the company during the second quarter (Q2). The last acquisition Wipro made in India was Spectramind in the BPO space four years ago.
Source: IANS