Mahindra Satyam eyeing more acquisitions abroad

After successfully acquiring the international operations of a US-based BPO firm and picking up minority stake in an Indian software firm, Mahindra Satyam has said it is looking at acquisitions in South and Central America and Eastern Europe. 

CEO of MSat CP Gurnani said the Mahindra Group Company prefers to acquire stakes in industrialisation processes and platforms and also in cloud and mobility areas. 
"Primary focus (for acquisitions) is industrialisation processes and platforms in Banking, Financial Services and Insurance ( BFSI), healthcare and manufacturing," Gurnani told PTI. 

Priority will also be on add-on service offering which could be cloud or mobility, he said adding the company will lay emphasis on new markets such as Central and South America and Eastern Europe. 

In March, MSat said it acquired international operations of vCustomer Corp a USA-based BPO firm for $ 27 million. 

It also said it acquired minority stake in Dion Global Solutions Limited in February. 

vCustomer is the first 100 per cent acquisition by Mahindra Satyam since it became part of the Mahindra Group. 

Mahindra Satyam was bought by Tech Mahindra Ltd in April 2009 after its founder B Ramalinga Raju confessed to an accounting fraud spread over years, earlier that year. 

The company has since recovered and is posting healthy profits, signaling signs of return to normalcy. 

Msat also acquired a minority stake in Dion Global, a specialist provider of software products and solutions for capital markets globally. 

Dion is majority-owned by Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, promoters of financial services firmReligare Enterprises and healthcare firm Fortis. 

Though MSat did not disclose the financial details of the Dion deal, AZB & Partners which advised MSat on the deal said the city-based IT firm paid $ 7 million and acquired close to 16 per cent in Dion. 

"Gurnani said MSat currently has a limited presence in Latin America and Eastern Europe which are big IT markets. 

"We invested in Dion because we strongly believed that they have product service offering and around that we can build an end-to-end service offering. 

"So our M&A strategy is simple and clear that we will continue to focus on, whether adding service offering or adding new markets," he explained. 

To to query, Gurnani said M&A is one subject which is focused and discussed every day. 

Without elaborating, Gurnani said, the company is constantly looking for acquisitions in the three focused areas.