With valuations of companies undergoing a downward trend, Travel technology and BPO solutions company, InterGlobe Technologies is targeting acquisitions in the USA within the next 18 months. The proposed size of acquisitions wasn?t made available but Vipul Doshi, CEO InterGlobe Technologies told FE that the company was eying enterprises with revenue between $10 to $20 million.

InterGlobe Technologies is a part of InterGlobe Enterprise, which also owns IndiGo Airlines. Speaking to FE, Doshi said, ?The present economic environment is offering a lot of good opportunities for inorganic growth. There are many smaller players in the market that are not able to sustain themselves but have good two-three clients under their belt?. This would be the first ever acquisition for the company he remarked. He explained that the company was hoping to expand its operations significantly through such buys in future.

As part of its expansion strategy the 1,700 employee strong BPO firm is also planning to set up a delivery centre in Philippines with a capacity of 500 employees by July this year. The company is looking at servicing its US and UK based clients from Philippines and is primarily targeting voice-based services. ?The cost of doing business in Philippines is usually 10% higher than India. However, the quality of voice in terms of accent and cultural understanding is better there,? Doshi said. The growing concern over H-1B visas in the US is also motivating InterGlobe to look for opportunities to set up centres in the US. ?The country is getting cost competitive as people are ready to work at 20-25% lower salaries over there,? Doshi observed.

Given the fact that the travel sector has been severely impacted due to the downturn, the company expects to grow at a rate of 25-30% which is almost half the 50% CAGR that it was registering for the past few years. Around two-thirds of the company?s revenue comes from the US, while 10% is made up from its domestic operations. ?The volume of ticketing is down 15-30% which is having an impact on our revenues,? he noted. However, he sees opportunities in East Europe, the Middle

East and in India. ?While capital intensive projects are not happening, companies are outsourcing their support and maintenance work to save cost,? he added.

In India too, travel and transportation companies including airlines that never outsourced before are evincing interest in it. ?We hope to increase the contribution of the domestic market to our overall revenues from the current 10% to 15% in the next 18 months,? he stated.