For audiences craving something new, Axone leaves a good impression, notes Joginder Tuteja.
British consultancy major Axon Group on Thursday decided to go ahead with a pound 441-million acquisition offer from HCL Technologies, while withdrawing its support to a smaller bid from Infosys.
On September 26, HCL Technologies announced the terms of a cash offer to acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Axon at a price of 650 pence per Axon share. On October 8, HCL EAS, the indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of HCL Technologies, acquired 3,01,623 Axon shares which represent approximately 0.47 per cent of the current issued share capital of Axon.
Raises offer 8.3 per cent; Infosys says it is 'considering its position'.
A 700-750 pence per share final price for Axon ($900-910 million) cannot be ruled out by the time the bidding war ends, say CLSA analysts. However, regardless of whoever wins this largest overseas acquisition, Emkay Global Financial Services analysts opine that Axon could well prove to be a winner's curse since a long-drawn bidding war might tell on the bottom lines of both firms.
The shares represent around 0.2 per cent of the existing issued share capital of Axon. The undertakings, according to a BSE announcement, remain binding even if a higher offer is made by a third party, but cease to be binding if the HCL scheme is withdrawn or lapses, or if the HCL acquisition is implemented by way of a takeover offer.
"We had raised a debt of $585 million for acquiring Axon which is maturing in December 2009. We have a cash position of $412 million. We will pay the debt out of the cash and raise a small debt," HCL Technologies Executive Vice-President (Finance) Anil Chanana said. HCL had acquired Axon for pound 441 million ($678 million) in December last year, funded partly by a short-term loan of $585 million.
The strategic buyout of Axon will increase Infosys' share in the high-growth SAP segment and consolidate its position in Europe.
The deal will give Infosys higher-end consulting capabilities and enable it to grow in a non-linear fashion. It will also enable Infosys to acquire some global names as clients and improve the Indian major's footprints in Europe at a time when Indian firms need to reduce their dependence on the US market.
Infosys had bid at 600 pence a share for the UK company. Infosys will get the one per cent inducement fee that Axon has to pay to the party unable to close the deal.
The Indian IT major spent a total of Rs 15 crore (Rs 150 million) towards the failed deal, but in the process received Rs 33 crore (Rs 330 million) from the UK firm, as inducement fees. Two of India's leading software services firm were in the race to acquire the London Stock Exchange-listed Axon, but last month HCL Technologies outbid Infosys and acquired the British firm.
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With India's two leading IT outsourcing companies, Infosys and HCL Technologies, vying to acquire the UK-based consulting firm Axon, SAP implementation is back in focus.
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The analyst community tracking the Indian IT services industry took special note of Accenture's first quarter (Q1) performance, which showcased the rapid growth of its consulting business that outperformed its outsourcing business. Bookings indicate that the trend will continue. Consulting bookings increased 41.6 per cent year-on-year (yoy) to $9.4 billion, higher than the 17.6 per cent growth in outsourcing to $7.4 billion. The management commentary was also more bullish on the consulting business.
The $4.6-billion company, which had earlier made an unsuccessful bid to acquire SAP consulting firm Axon that was latter acquired by HCL, would prefer acquiring companies overseas where growing organically is a little challenge, the Bangalore-headquartered company's CEO and MD S (Kris) Gopalakrishna said.
Wipro sees a silver lining in Q1; others say recovery by 2009-end.
The Bangalore-headquartered company is believed to be evaluating two-three companies, which are in the revenue bracket of $100-200 million to eliminate some gaps that exist in its services offerings and increase focus on certain verticals, which have been least affected in the midst of the economic slowdown. It's reliably learnt that the company is looking at healthcare and energy and utilities as the two major areas for possible acquisitions.
When the firm decides what to do, we will evaluate it.
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