Will acquisitions help HCL overtake Wipro?

HCL Technologies ended the fourth quarter of FY18 with revenues of $2.04 billion and the financial year with 12.4 percent growth over the previous fiscal.

The IT services company, founded by Shiv Nadar, is banking on a couple of recent acquisitions to push the numbers even higher in the next fiscal.

In April, HCL acquired C3i Solutions from Merck & Co. C3i is a specialist in customer management software in two areas—life sciences and consumer packaged goods.

The acquisition has opened the doors to business with several pharmaceutical companies and some top-tier consumer packaged goods companies, CEO C Vijayakumar told investors in a conference earlier this month.

C3i’s revenues, however, have been declining, Vijayakumar added, and a turnaround could be expected in the fiscal year starting April 2019.

HCL’s other acquisition—Palo Alto-based software firm Actian Corp—will bring the company a strong portfolio of data management products.

The $330 million deal is expected to conclude in August this year. Actian too is slowing, but Vijayakumar expects growth to stabilise and turn around as early as next year as HCL combines its strengths with Actian’s.