Hinduja Global to close China joint venture deal by June

Back-office service provider Hinduja Global Solutions hopes to close a joint venture agreement in China by end-June as it gears up for more overseas buys to expand its global footprint, a top official said. 

The firm is also looking at entering Latin America through new buys or a greenfield unit in six months, chief executive Partha De Sarkar said.                                           

"We have got $120 million of cash lying in our Mauritian subsidiary, so we hope to utilize that for acquisitions in areas like CRM (customer relationship management) and non-voice. We finished one acquisition in June last year. We are actively looking for some more," he said.  

Indian software firms are looking for acquisitions as they build capabilities in key business segments and geographies to take advantage of the gradual recovery in technology spending globally.  

India's $60 billion software services sector had to battle demand for price cuts a few quarters ago, as clients cut back on outsourcing in a sluggish global economy, but are now seeing a rebound in demand and an improvement in the pricing environment.   

The firm, which reported consolidated December quarter results on Tuesday saw net profit slip 7% to Rs280.1 million. Revenues rose to Rs2.87 billion from Rs2.23 billion in the same period a year ago. 

Hinduja, which services verticals such as telecom, technology, consumer electronics, health insurance among others, is also in talks with prospective clients to enter the utilities vertical by June.   

"It's something we are trying to do for sometime now. We are looking at power systems. Hopefully, something should come up in the next quarter or by quarter one."   

The company is also planning to spend Rs500-600 million on setting up business process outsourcing centres in FY12. It is also looking at establishing BPO centres in Siliguri, in east India, and Philippines in the first quarter, Sarkar said.                       

"That's it for now, we may look at north India later". 

The company, which has a high attrition rate of 60%, plans to hire about 2,000 people in FY12. Hinduja Global had a headcount of 18,730 at the end of December quarter. 

Shares of the firm ended down 7.13% at Rs303.95 in a weak Mumbai market.