Though keen to make its mark in India, the company is yet to identify potential targets for acquisitions in the country, Dussmann group spokesman Hartwig Schulte-Loh, said here.

Apart from India, the company intends to buy out companies in China, Vietnam, South Korea and Hong Kong.

"The company's expansion into Asia had begun in 1998 and we are now planning to take it further. We have already identified the companies for acquisition and initiated talks with them in China, Vietnam and South Korea. In the case of India, we are still looking at various options," he said adding that acquisitions would be sought only in the hospital, services and catering sectors.

"We are carefully watching the country for companies on the verge of folding up as they could be potential targets. The Dussmann group also runs a chain of departmental stores in Europe and Latin America.

"But we are not looking at expanding this chain to the east as the concept of big departmental stores is yet to catch on in Asia. The group had recently bagged an order, its largest so far, from a Chinese university to cater 200,000 dinners per day. "There is a future in services. An increasing number of companies are turning to selective outsourcing. They are entrusting external service specialists with their non-operational tasks and having recognised this, we have positioned ourselves as the ready solution to all their problems," he added. The group presently operates in 25 countries and in 1998, through a network of related service businesses, the company achieved total sales of DM 1.8 billion. It has projected to close the current year with total sales of DM 2.1 billion.

Tracing its history, Schulte-Loh said the Dussmann group entered the services sector in 1963 with mere ten employees and has since grown to have 50,000 employees. It had set up its first foreign subsidiary in Austria in 1968 and followed it up with a subsidiary in Italy in 1970. Since then, the company has established presence in around 25 countries, including the United States, Britain, China, Switzerland and France.