Infosys Technologies won a $250 million contract from Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands and said will acquire three BPO centres from the Dutch company for $28 million.
As part of the outsourcing contract agreement, Philips will enter into a seven-year contract with Infosys BPO to provide finance and accounting services and the processing of purchasing orders.
"The deal size is approximately $250 million over seven years," Infosys' Chief Operating Officer, S D Shibulal told PTI. "We are acquiring three shared service centre located in India, Poland and Thailand from Philips. We are making a one-time payment of $28 million and acquiring the three centres on a as-is-where-is basis."
The acquisition expands Infosys' global network, particularly strengthening its European operations, with 1,400 skilled BPO staff joining the NASDAQ-listed IT and consulting major.
The multi-year contract is among the largest F&A deals in business process outsourcing) from India.
Company Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director S Gopalakrishnan said earlier in the day that the company is scouting for acquisitions in 'all geographies' to expand its overseas footprint.
Gopalakrishnan said it has started investing in Japan, China, Europe, Australia and the United States in order to fill gaps in their services offerings.
"We look at acquisitions to fill gaps in our services as well as accelerate our growth in certain geographies where we have less presence today," Gopalakrishnan said.
"And if you are looking at where we are investing today. . . Japan, China, Europe, Australia and even in the US, to fill the gaps in our services. In that sense, we are looking at all geographies (for acquisitions)," he said.
"There is always something being evaluated (potential acquisitions)," Gopalakrishnan said.
The Nasdaq-listed firm had cash and cash equivalents of $1.6 billion (Rs 6,442 crore) as on June 30 this year.
Speaking on his role as CEO, Gopalakrishnan said stepping into the shoes of N R Narayana Murthy and Nandan M Nilekani who held the post earlier is challenging as the company has been successful under their leadership, and (now) there is a lot of expectation about where it is going.
The company today is operating in an environment which is changing, he said.
"We have appreciating rupee, we have a competitive environment for (human) resources in India, competition has gone beyond IT companies. . . because many sectors are competing for same resources," he said.
"Overall, the competition is increasing. There is a need for higher efficiency, higher productivity, increasing the competitiveness of Infosys. . . bringing in higher revenue per employee. These are some of the challenges."
"Infosys needs to address these challenges uniquely. Some of the challenges are same for all companies. So, (we have to) address them uniquely such that we continue to differentiate ourselves from others," Gopalakrishnan said.
Infosys had a total headcount of 75,971 as on June 30. The company said it plans to hire 26,000 people for the whole of 2007-08.
He said Infosys has a very strong foundation, a very good set of employees and customers, and tremendous brand equity. "It's the responsibility of all of us, especially the leadership, to make sure that we deliver on that promise, on that opportunity. I also believe that we have to work very hard to make sure that Infosys continues to be a success and may be more successful than in the past."
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