"Previously, we did small acquisitions in the range of $30-60 million. Now we have an appetite for larger acquisitions of over $100 million. With acquisitions contributing significantly to the company's profitability in the past, we feel we have the capability to manage larger acquisitions now," said Sudip Banerjee, president, enterprise solutions division, Wipro Technologies.

The company is eyeing acquisitions in the pharmaceutical and avionic sectors. It is looking at companies in the US and continental Europe. In the pharma industry, the infrastructure, package implementation, drug discovery and analytics space is being considered.

"We can do this organically, but it will take at least two years to have competency in these areas. By acquisitions, we can do this in less than 9 months," added Sudip Nandy, chief strategy officer, Wipro. Wipro currently has 3-4 customers in the pharma space. In aerospace, Wipro has about five customers.

The company now wants to position itself both in the mechanical designing and electronics space. "We are looking at both the areas," said Nandy, adding the possible geographies could be Canada and Europe.

Source: 1

Prashanth Rai