Satyam to ink new deals in Australia

SYDNEY : Satyam Computer Services Ltd.,  said on Thursday that it was near to completing more outsourcing deals in Australia.

Satyam co-founder and chief executive B Rama Raju said, the company, which last November reached a A$71 million ($59 billion) outsourcing agreement with Qantas Airways Ltd., was talking with banks and telecommunications companies.

"A couple of things are almost at the final stage. We will share them shortly," Raju told Reuters in an interview. He declined to put a size on the potential deals.

Raju said Hyderabad-based Satyam was also looking at potential acquisitions in the Asia-Pacific region to fill skills shortages.

"We are evaluating a number of companies now. We will not be doing it for size, we are doing it more for filling the gaps in competency," Raju said.

The companies being looked at typically had 100 to 200 people, he said, without giving a time-frame for any acquisitions.

Satyam, which is also listed in New York, earlier opened a 150-seat software development centre in Sydney, to take its Australian workforce to 700.

The opening is the latest in a series of regionally focused investments, including an agreement in February to build a 2,500-seat development centre in Shanghai.

Satyam reported last week that net profit for the January-March quarter rose 38 per cent to 3.94 billion rupees as more foreign firms looked to outsourcing to cut costs.

© Reuters