Even as Tech Mahindra sews up the acquisition of Hutch’s call centre operations, the outsourcer is already scouting around for more.
The company expects acquisition to enable it to get access to more customers, apart from increasing its skill sets.
“We are looking to acquire more companies … We are looking at a variety of spaces, if you look at the combined entity it has capabilities across verticals, and we are looking to enhance our capabilities in financial services, healthcare and in other areas like engineering services,” Tech Mahindra Senior Vice-President and head of mergers and acquisition Manoj Bhat told
“At this point, we have a minimum size restriction and we would not look at something small, $25 million or below. But beyond that we don’t have a restriction on size, because if we think that if something is adding value, we will look at it,” Bhat added. On Monday, Tech Mahindra announced the acquisition of Hutchison Global Services for $87.1 million (about Rs 480 crore). The company expects its merger with Mahindra Satyam to be completed in the first quarter of next year.
The combined entity – Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam – has about $500 million in cash on books as of June 30, 2012.
Vehicle manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra holds about 48 per cent stake in Tech Mahindra.
As for when the deal would be sealed, Sujit Bakshi, President (Corporate Affairs and Business Services Group), Tech Mahindra, said, “This calendar year, in my opinion, seems tough. It should probably happen in the first quarter of 2013.”
“We can’t put a timeline to it, but our expectation is that the court would process it in a fast manner. Usually courts process merger applications very fast,” he added.