TCS denies eyeing stake in German firm

New Delhi: Tata Consultancy Services denied on Tuesday media reports that suggested it is eyeing stake in German IT company’s unit, T-Systems.

TCS—touted as country’s top software exporter—was said to be eyeing stake of up to 10 percent in Deutsche Telekom’s IT unit, T-Systems in exchange of executing $1 billion worth of orders.

However, TCS CEO shrugged it off as mere speculation. "We give no credence to speculation," CEO S Ramadorai was quoted by PTI.

German business weekly Focus Online reported on March 22 that the Tata Group was studying the books of T-Systems and were planning this deal through the European unit of TCS.

T-Systems is one of the smallest units of Deutsche Telekom, which reported a revenue of 12.5 billion euro (about Rs 73,000 crore) last year. T-systems has a total workforce of over 55,000 people.

TCS, which at present has a staff-strength of 83,500 will increase the headcount to 1 lakh by March next year, informed Ramadorai.

TCS has the lowest attrition rate of 10.8 per cent in the industry. Non-Indians comprise 8.8 per cent of the workforce while 25 per cent employees are women.

The company is eyeing a slot in the world's top ten IT companies by 2010, for which it aims to increase its revenues.

On the basis of net income, TCS is number sixth in the world, while on the basis of market capitalisation of $28 billion—it ranks as the fourth. It is also ranked sixth in the world in terms of the number of employees. However, in terms of revenues, the company was ranked 12 in the world.

With PTI inputs