HCL Technologies To Take Over Axon

HCL Technologies To Take Over AxonHCL Technologies Ltd, India's fifth largest IT company's mega-acquisition of UK-based SAP consulting company Axon Group, is nearly complete. HCL chief executive Vineet Nayar said "Axon investors by majority (99.9 per cent) accepted our cash offer of 650 pence ($9.78) per share. The deal will be finalised after the court approval Dec
15."

Meanwhile, the Delhi-based HCL informed the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) that a London court had also cleared the scheme of arrangement to implement the acquisition by its subsidiary HCL EAS Ltd.

However Mr. Nayar stated, "A deal is not done till it is done. December 15 is the date of court approval and anything can happen between now and then. We have taken certain measures, which we cannot reveal immediately, that are aimed at increasing the certainty of our acquisition." As per the law, there could still be a new bidder after Monday's EGM, though historically there is no precedence for the same. Once completed, this would mark the largest buy-out in the Indian IT industry - surpassing Wipro's $600-million acquisition of Infocrossing.

Nayar said in an oblique reference to the impact of global recession and financial meltdown on stock prices in the equity markets worldwide "The deal is significantly more attractive to us today than it was yesterday. In fact, we bought 10.43 percent of Axon shares in October from the open market at less than the offer price (650 pence)."

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