Wipro close to acquiring US aerospace services co

New Delhi, Mar 08: Wipro Technologies, which has made a string of acquisitions in the last 12-18 months, is close to making another acquisition in the US. According to sources, it will be acquiring a US-based aerospace services company. The buyout, expected to be around million will help Wipro strengthen its aerospace capability.

When asked about this, Wipro Technologies chief strategy officer Sudip Nandy told ET, "Last year we acquired Quantech which has over 500 domain specialists in engineering design within automotive, aerospace and other areas. While we are not looking at automotive related acquisition at present, we would like to strengthen our aerospace capability. Other areas where we are looking at acquisitions are manufacturing, travel and transport, infrastructure and BPO."

However, he declined to confirm the acquisition saying that "it is speculation. We are looking at quite a few acquisitions, I don't know which one will be first. On the lower side the acquisitions could be around million and on the higher side it could be around 0 million or multiple of that." Wipro's work in the aerospace vertical includes embedded systems, cabin electronics, in-flight entertainment systems, product life cycle management and consulting, engineering and design services. The acquisition will help strengthen this capability and add to its avionics practice which covers areas like navigation systems and design.

Wipro is working with clients in areas like design, engineering and analysis of macrostructures and technical documentation. While the business is at present at the component level, Wipro is looking towards designing complete sub sub-systems. At present, Wipro has around 400 people working in its aerospace division.

In recent months Wipro has acquired Enabler, cMango, mPower and other companies. Commenting on the strategy and integration challenges, Mr Nandy said, "There are gaps that we want to plug and the acquisitions have helped. Interestingly attrition levels in companies that we acquired are significantly lower than Wipro's own." Wipro wants to be among the top 10 global IT service companies in terms of revenue within the next four years and the acquisitions in Europe and the US are expected to help the company accelerate to that goal.

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