HCL counters Infosys' bid for Axon at 650 pence/share

NEW DELHI: HCL Technologies on Friday made a counter bid of 650 pence a share compared to 600 pence offered by Infosys to buy UK-based consultancy firm Axon.

Under the terms of offer, Axon shareholders will receive 650 pence in cash for each share valuing the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Axon at 441.1 million pounds (814.38 million dollar), HCL said here.

HCL's offer is 8.3 per cent more than Infosys which had valued the Axon Group at 407.1 million pound.

Axon provides process consultancy services to large organisations which have chosen SAP as their strategic enterprise platform. The company has a customer base across UK, North America and Asia.

With an employee strength of 2,000, Axon had reported profit before tax of 29.5 million pound and revenues of 204.5 million pound for the year ended December 2007.


Vineet Nayar, CEO, HCL Technologies said "We see Axon as transformational opportunity for HCL to become a significant player in the SAP services space. I am excited about the high performance and employee centric cultural synergy between HCL and Axon that would help accelerate the process of integration between the two teams."

Announcing the offer to acquire Axon last month, Infosys CEO S Gopalakrishnan had said, "We are excited about this acquisition".

HCL shares closed at Rs 212.95, down by over 5 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange today.