C'est le tour d'Infosys de faire l "€uro shopping"

Source : Economic Times

Bangalore-based IT major Infosys Technologies is scouting for acquisitions of mid-sized BPO companies in Europe. Sources in the industry said the company is looking at deals valued at over Rs 400 crore. Infosys, which has been on the look-out for a deal for some time now, plans to increase the scale of its BPO outfit through an acquisition.

“We are looking at acquisition in various geographies, including Europe in both IT services and BPO. In case of BPOs, the driver for Europe would be local language capability, client-base and platform,” a company source told ET.

Sources close to the development said the company is already in discussions with a few players for an acquisition. The company, however, did not confirm this.

Infosys BPO started as a joint venture between Infosys and Citibank Investments in 2002. During the first quarter of the current fiscal, Infosys bought Citi’s 23% stake in the company for Rs 530 crore. The company’s name was also changed from Progeon, after the BPO became Infosys’ wholly-owned subsidiary.

The company has operations in India, the Czech Republic, China and Philippines, through a partner. Infosys has provided a FY07 revenue guidance of $125 million for its BPO outfit.

Infosys BPO recently won a contract from one of the largest integrated oil companies in the world to deliver a wide range of indirect procurement services, including third-party hiring, commodity sourcing, indirect services sourcing, and supplier performance management. Recent wins include one of the best known US media companies.

Expanding its delivery footprint, Infosys BPO recently opened a 900-seat centre in Jaipur and announced plans to increase its capacity significantly over a 3-5 year period. The company also opened a centre in Delhi.

In December last year, the shareholders of Infosys BPO approved a buy-back of up to 12,79,963 equity shares at a market value of Rs 604 per equity share. Pursuant to the buy-back offer, Infosys BPO bought back 11,39,469 equity shares, which were subsequently cancelled on December 29, 2006. As of December 31 2006, Infosys holds 99.91% of the outstanding equity shares of Infosys BPO.