HCL Tech buys out Computech in HES

HCL Technologies has bought out the US-based Computech Corporation from HCL Enterprise Solutions (HES).

The company today announced the acquisition of the balance 16.33 per cent held by Computech in the company for nearly $2 million (Rs 55 crore). The company purchased the stake through its wholly owned subsidiary, HCL Technologies (Bermuda) Ltd (HCLB).

HES was set up as a 51:49 joint venture between HCL Tech and Computech Corporation in 2001, to focus on the enterprise application integration (EAI) market.

HCL Tech later acquired the 16.33 per cent stake each in September 2002 and October 2003. HCLB will be solely owned and managed as HCL Tech (Illinois) Inc (HCLTI).

By way of the joint venture, HCL Tech has strengthened its Oracle practice with 60 active accounts in the Oracle ERP space. The acquisition has enabled HCL to gain a strong onsite presence in the US ERP market.

"For a company which has 80 per cent of its business off-shore, this acquisition is important to boost our on-site presence," said a company executive.

HCL also proposed to leverage HCLTI's strengths to enhance its presence and offerings in the Peoplesoft and SAP domains, company executives said.

They said that this was in line with a spate of recent acquisitions made in the last few months. "These acquisitions have been to develop specific domain expertise, be it DSL Software from Deutsche Bank or the $160 million BPO services buyout from British Telecom."

The acquisitions were part of the company's strategy to derisk its portfolio as they had been made across geographical locations and covering the entire spectrum of software services, company executives said.

For the twelve-month period ended December 31, 2004, HCL Technologies along with its subsidiaries had a net profit of Rs 129.14 crore.