HCL Tech still bullish on acquisitions despite global slowdown

Noida, Sept 18 (UNI) Even as economies fret over the meltdown of markets globally, HCL Technologies today said it is still on the lookout for potential acquisitions.

''Despite the global slowdown, we are on the lookout for possible acquisitions. In short-term, the growth graph will be flat or see a downward trend, but the number of deals are expected to go up,'' HCL Technologies CEO Vineet Nayar told reporters here.

Mr Nayar said the October-November-December period will be the time to watch out as budgets earmarked for the year as used up and new budgets are worked on.

HCL Tech, he said, would look at acquiring companies which will help in strengthening the eight areas/sectors that the company has marked as the growth drivers.

These include engineering services, infrastructure, enterprise resource management and enterprise transformation services.

The company would look at deal sizes of more than a 100 million dollars, which it calls ''transformational acquisitions'', and might go upto 1-2 billion dollars, he added.

Asked if HCL would look at raising funds for these acquisitions, Mr Nayar refused to comment. ''We are completely leveraged. Most IT companies in the country are in a position to absorb companies worth about 700-800 million dollars,'' he said.

Media reports had said the company was looking at raising one billion dollars to fund its overseas acqusitions.

UNI SR RAR RK1840