Ma Foi eyes Rs 100 cr investments

Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd, India's largest staffing and human resources (HR) service provider, is looking at investments in the region of Rs 100 crore for inorganic growth in the next three years within and outside the country.

Close on the heels of its acquisition by the Dutch major in manpower solutions Vedior NV, Ma Foi is now targeting to grow into a Rs 1,000-crore company in these three years.

This three year period is also the time-frame within which Vedior, which the world's third largest staffing company, is targeting on emerging as the numero uno in the Asian HR market.

"Vedior has committed a war chest to us," K Pandia Rajan, managing director and CEO, told Business Standard.

While he refused to put a number on the size of this war chest, he said that the company is now empowered to make acquisitions both small and large. Beyond the Rs 27 crore paid by Vedior for the 76 per cent stake it acquired in Ma Foi, the Dutch have already pumped in another Rs 8 crore as an interim debt.

Currently talks are on with three small companies in the training, IT flexi staffing and healthcare space.

There is also an acquisition in South East Asia under consideration. The three prospective acquisitions in India will sum up to about Rs 8 crore, Rajan said. With 1,400 players in the staffing industry in India, it time for some service roll up, he added.

However, he expects no acquisition in India to go beyond the Rs 10 crore mark. The bigger acquisitions are clearly being eyed in the international market.

Becoming a key front for Vedior in Asia, Ma Foi has also drawn extensive plan for its organic growth in the region. The company, which has set up its Asia-Pacific nodal office at Singapore, will shortly open an office at Kuala Lumpur.

By December it is also looking at setting up its office at Bangkok.