HTMT plans $200 m buyouts

To fuel the next level of growth, outsourcing major Hinduja TMT (HTMT) has earmarked about $200 million for acquisitions, a top company executive said on Monday.

The ITeSPO company is actively pursuing buy-out targets in the UK and North America and "would definitely put in upwards of $100-150 million," company managing director K Thiagarajan said.

Indicating that the deal would be "pretty large," he said the company, very active on the acquisition radar, was looking at both large and small "right-fit" players and added "we are not bound by size-limitations."

"I don't think funding is a fundamental constraint," he said stating, "we have close to 3.5 per cent stake in Hutch. Once we divest that, we will put the money back into core business."

He further said the company was waiting for the right price to off-load, which sources say could fetch the firm in excess of $350 million.

The company was keen to "unlock" value in their media venture, in which it has 62 per cent stake, to turn it into a separate division.

Thiagarajan said the company was also looking to acquire a software-development services company, with headcount of about 1000, either in india or overseas in a deal of $35-50 million.

As part of a derisking strategy, the company plans to rapidly increase by 15-20 per cent the contribution of software development services to the total revenue, Thiagarajan said.

Currently, the share of software development services to revenues is less than five per cent. "We look for good acquisitions which are complementary or which diversify us into newer areas" he said.