Wipro may close one more $200mn acquisition

Wipro Limited -- which has cash reserves of close to $800 million and is set to add another $500 million during the year -- is expected to close another acquisition in the $200 million (around Rs 810 crore) plus range.

The company over the past two years has spent a little over $500 million (little over Rs 2,000 crore) for around a dozen acquisitions -- the largest being the recent $250 million acquisiton of Singapore-based FMCG player Unza Holdings. Keeping his fingers crossed, Sudip Nandy, chief strategy officer and the man leading the M&A strategy for Wipro said: "We should be effecting a $200 million plus acquisition in the IT space during this fiscal, if things fall in place."

He added that across the four main businesses - Wipro Technologies, Wipro Infotech, Wipro Consumer Care, Wipro Infrastructure - there are at least 10-15 deals which the company is pursuing. "At the lower end of the band cumulatively the value will be $250 million, while it will be $1 billion at the upper end," he said.

Wipro Technologies too is looking at acquisitions in Germany and Canada. This would help the company in expanding its footprints in those countries, apart from establishing a strong local presence. "We are looking at taking inorganic route to expand in Germany and Canada. Germany is an emerging market and in Canada we are a late entrant," said Wipro chairman Azim Premji. Besides, he said the company was looking at increasing presence in the Middle East.

Wipro chief strategy officer Sudip Nandy said the acquisitions in Germany and Canada will give the company an entry to those markets. "We think that these are markets which are very potential and we have not been benefitted much from these markets," he said. Nandy said the company was looking for companies in telecom, BPO, infrastructure and package implementation space.

In the last quarter, Wipro Technologies has won two contracts in Canada in the last quarter in energy and utilities space.