Now that the merger issue is behind it, Tech Mahindra is scouting for global acquisitions.
The company is keenly looking at an acquisition in Australia, one of its biggest revenue contributors in the Rest of the World (RoW) region.
“We are looking at a candidate to enhance our domain capabilities such as in BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance), telecom and healthcare. We will not do an acquisition for the sake of it. We are looking at the right fit,” Rohit Gandhi, Senior Vice-President, Asia-Pac, India, Middle-East and Africa, told
Emerging tech
“Companies that are working in the areas that suit our future technology offerings such as NMACS (Networks, mobility, analytics, cloud and security) too would be considered,” he said.
Tech Mahindra has been nurturing this region as an alternative growth centre after the economies of the US and Europe witnessed strain in the last five years. This region contributes 24 per cent to the combined turnover of $2.7 billion of the company, while the US tops the list with 43 per cent and Europe 33 per cent.
One-fourth of Tech Mahindra’s total employee base of 84,000 work in the RoW region.
Post merger, the targeted revenues of $5 billion by 2015. Asked what could be the contribution from this region by 2015, he said: “The percentages could remain the same but volumes would grow. We are trying out different models in key markets. In Japan, China and Korea, we are looking at forging partnerships with local companies,” he said.
In China, the company is focussing on engineering services. Äbout 50 per cent of business in China is coming from this vertical. We have entered into four partnerships with local firms,” he said.
New growth centres
Tech Mahindra is also looking at some virgin markets in the region.
“We have set up operations in Vietnam. We already have some wins in the BFSI segment there. We are looking at opening at starting operations in Taiwan, the global electronic design hub. We can leverage on our strengths in telecom and IT to tap business,” he said.
The other markets that offer scope are Indonesia, the Philippines. “We are focussing on localisation of our offerings. About 90 per cent of our staff in Malaysia and the Philippines are locals. This will help us in having better conversation there,” he said.