HCL Tech eyes emerging markets for infra deals

Delhi-based HCL Technologies is looking at emerging geographies like the West Asia, South Africa, Hong Kong and Singapore for large system integration (SI) deals, valued between $50 million and $100 million (Rs 230-460 crore), in the infrastructure management space.

Last year, it had closed five deals, including a seven-year end-to-end engagement with National Insurance Company (NIC), in the infrastructure space in the country’s power and government sectors.

The Rs 393-crore NIC contract, the largest in the Indian insurance sector, covered the entire information technology life cycle, from transformation to integration and operations management.

“We have done the largest SI deal with the Indian market but now, we are looking at other markets like the Middle East, South Africa and China,” said Anant Gupta, president of HCL Technologies’ Infrastructure Services Division (ISD).

For the fourth quarter ended June 30, infrastructure services contributed 22.4 per cent, or Rs 2,653.1 crore, to the company’s total revenues. The company also signed contracts worth $35-100 million (Rs 161-460 crore) in the power space and with other insurance clients.

“Financial services and government are seeing huge buying momentum in India and we are pursuing large transformational deals in the energy, power and healthcare verticals in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and the pipeline is healthy,” said Kiran Bhagwanani, worldwide head of SI sales, ISD.

Bhagwanani said HCL Technologies was chasing 10-15 such engagements in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore in the next 12-18 months, combining SI and infrastructure services.

“We are looking at deal sizes in the region of $20-100 million (Rs 92-460 crore), where the actual revenue flow happens in the first two years and then we do operations and management work.”