New York: Tech Mahindra, partly owned by BT Group, plans to acquire software companies in Latin America to help more than double sales in the next three years.
Tech Mahindra aims to buy companies that write software codes for tele-communications, oil and gas and financial services industries, Vivek Kalra, a vice-president, said in an interview on Thursday.
The acquisition will be done jointly with Satyam Computer Services, 43 per cent owned by Tech Mahindra, he said.
The Pune, western India-based company and larger rival Tata Consultancy Services seek to increase business in Latin American countries as telecom mergers and acquisitions in emerging markets generate new contracts.
Tech Mahindra aims to boost revenue to $5 billion (Dh18.3 billion) in part by acquiring companies, Rajesh Chandiramani, head of the company's India sales, said.
Companies in Latin America spend more on information technology "than what China spends, more than what India spends," Kalra said. "There's huge potential out there."
Tech Mahindra's shares, which have declined 29 per cent this year, added 0.9 per cent to Rs700.9 at in Mumbai on Thursday.
The software exporter won a Mexican telecommunications company as its first customer in Latin America in the quarter ended in June, Kalra said.
Tata Consultancy, India's largest software exporter, bought all the shares it didn't own in TCS do Brasil, its Brazilian joint venture, for $33 million in May 2007. The company earlier acquired Chile's Comicrom for $23 million in cash.
Spending on software
Worldwide IT spending by businesses and governments, which includes computer equipment and software purchases, will grow 7 per cent this year to $1.6 trillion, after falling by 8.6 per cent last year, according to an October 15 report from Forrester Research.
Tech Mahindra gained control of Satyam in May last year in an auction held by a government-nominated board after the Hyderabad-based company was embroiled in India's biggest corporate fraud investigation.
The two companies had a combined revenue of Rs101 billion ($2.3 billion) in the year ended March 31. BT owns 24.5 per cent of Tech Mahindra, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
