Eicher Motors Ltd on Thursday forayed into engineering services outsourcing with the acquisition of US-based company Design Intent Engineering and said it expected the new business to contribute $100 million in the next four years.
"India, with its low-cost but high-quality engineering skills, has a great potential in this sphere and we expect major growth in the coming time," Siddhartha Lal, chief operating officer of the Rs 2,200 crore (Rs 22 billion) Eicher Group, said.
He said the all-cash $2.5-million acquisition of the Detriot-based DIE, which currently employs about 60 engineers, would be followed by other acquisitions in the future. "Possibly. We are looking at acquisitions in the future in the US and Europe," Lal said.
However, he refused to specify any investment levels for the purpose. Eicher currently employs about 60 people in India who are engaged in engineering services and Lal said that if the business grew as expected, the company expected the division to have as many as 600 engineers by 2009.
He said US was "the biggest market" for these services and the company expected a major chunk of revenues from that country.
"DIE will provide us a ready platform for growth in the US and help us in growing the business rapidly," he added.
DIE has several leading OEMs and Tier I manufacturers as its customers and has considerable strength in areas of interior and exterior design.
