Lifting the cap on acquisitions, Zensar Technologies is planning to buy two companies in the area of SAP or an infrastructure management (IM) firm in the US and Europe for about $20-25 million.
“We are going to buy firms in these areas in the next 9-12 months,” Dr Ganesh Natarajan, Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Zesar Technologies, told Business Line on the sidelines of three-day Nasscom Leadership Forum here on Tuesday.
“We have set a target to become a $1-billion firm by 2016, growing up by from the present size,” he said.
The company, which gave a guidance of Rs 1,600 crore, hopes to cross Rs 1,700-crore in the current financial year. It employs 7,000 people, with 800 getting into the firm this year.
“We registered best results in the third quarter. We are looking at reaching the $1-billion mark without having very large employee base. We would like to achieve the figure with 15,000 employees,” he said.
It clocked a turnover of Rs 500 crore in the quarter ended December 31, 2011, as against Rs 270 crore in the same quarter last year. Last year, its turnover was Rs 1,164 crore.
attrition rate
He said the industry is witnessing low attrition rates at lateral levels as companies shift their focus on freshers as they hire. “Attrition rate is just 6 per cent at our company. demand for laterals is low across the industry,” he said.
Zensar is planning to set up its third special economic zone (after Pune and Hyderabad) next year. “But this time, we are looking at a tier-III city. it could be an SEZ or a development centre but not certainly in a big city,” he said.
‘MAT should go'
The former Chairman of Nasscom felt that the industry expected either removal or reduction in MAT in the ensuing Budget as it is playing spoilsport.