I have not pushed Infosys for acquisition: Kamath

Infosys Chairman K V Kamath said it is not his individual but a decision of the board to go for a global acquisition to turn around the market sentiment for the country’s second largest software firm.

Reports had suggested that Kamath was pushing the top leadership of Infosys to go for global acquisition within the next few months. “My having told the Infosys management is not correct. Infosys management itself has articulated it very clearly during the course of the year that acquisition is a strategy that they will look at with all seriousness and I can say that that has happened,” Kamath told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.

Infosys, which is due to announce its first quarter results on 12 July, had cash and cash equivalents worth Rs 20,591 crore on its books at the end of 31 March, 2012. “Acquisitions are never easy. You need to make sure that you have looked at the right context, the right fit and then move on ahead. That’s part of what they (Board) are doing.

But this story that I have been driving them to look at acquisitions is not correct,” Kamath clarified. Infosys has been underperforming compared to its peers like TCS, HCL Technologies and Cognizant in the past few quarters.

For FY'13, the company has forecast an 8-10 percent increase, lower than even industry body Nasscom’s estimate of 11-14 percent growth. The company, last year while announcing its Infosys 3.0 strategy, had said it would focus more on consulting and products and platforms.

An acquisition may help Infosys turn around its fortunes at a time when IT companies globally face challenges of slow demand amid economic turmoil. However, Kamath is confident of Indian companies sailing through these tough times.“I think India will be a huge opportunity because just imagine the amount of tech infusion that would have to be done by the government.I think it will make up for quite some demand,” he said.

He added the “key” for the Indian IT companies would be to remain competitive. “In Indian IT business, we need to figure out what is our competitive edge as we have always done in the past and in the changed context, where are we and what we need to do to deliver value to our customer, the bottomline is skills upgradation and leanness,” he added.

PTI