M&A

3 November, 2009

TCS, Wipro in race for Target's India centre-paper

MUMBAI, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Leading Indian outsourcers, including Tata Consultancy (TCS.BO) and Wipro (WIPR.BO), are looking at acquiring American discount retailer Target's (TGT.N) captive technology centre, the Economic Times said on Wednesday.

It will be a transaction with a long-term outsourcing contract worth $300 million to $400 milion, the newspaper said.

The U.S.-based retailer has around 1,500 employees at its centre in Bangalore in southern India that does software development and maintenance work, the paper said.

Both TCS and Wipro count Target as one of their top retail customers, it said.

"We have been in discussions with them for the past few months and the dialogue is still open," the paper quoted an unidentified senior executive at one of the software firms exploring the transaction as saying.

Target's India centre could be doing at least $100 million worth of revenues annually, another unidentified person familiar with the U.S. retailer's India operations told the paper.

A spokesman for TCS declined to comment on the report. Wipro's spokeswoman could not be immediately reached by Reuters.

The newspaper said that officials at Target did not reply to an email query.

Target's website showed the company has three software development centres in Bangalore and is looking at more growth options. (Reporting by Janaki Krishnan; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)

Source: http://www.reuters.com