Defiance Tech casts a wide net for acquisition; plans IPO

Defiance Technologies Ltd, a Hinduja Group company, is looking at its first major acquisition during the next fiscal, with an outlay of $10-50 million. It will also start preparations for an IPO next fiscal, according to the company's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Subu D. Subramanian.

The company is looking at target companies in the areas of SAP (with specialisation in CRM, CLM and mobile application) to help the company quickly ramp up in these businesses.

Europe subsidiary

It is also interested in companies in the engineering and manufacturing sectors with interests in automobile, aerospace and Defence, he told Business Line recently. The Chennai-based Defiance employs around 1,200 people in its centres in the city and in Bangalore, and has testing facilities at Troy and Westland in the US.

Mr Subramanian said that Defiance has set up a subsidiary (Defiance GmbH) in Europe, with headquarters in Cologne, to have access to roadways, airport and the Benelux region.

As part of its acquisition strategy, the company is looking at targets that can help Defiance quickly ramp up in Europe, he said.

Defiance added nearly 40 new customers in the last 12 months, taking its total tally to 80 active global clients, including 30 Fortune 500 companies. Founded in 1976 in the US, with a focus on product engineering and testing, Defiance was acquired by the Hinduja Group in 2007, and expanded its services to engineering, ERP and IT.

According to Mr Subramanian, Defiance delivers customised products – right from design to proof of concept — for sectors such as automobile.

For instance, it designed and engineered a tipper trailer for a specified vehicle based on the inputs provided by the customer in India. The challenge was in benchmarking the product with international trailer and domestic manufacturers with optimised weight, better strength and durability and an optimised design for frame and load body, he said.

Industry experts

Defiance has roped in industry experts from various sectors, including automobile and aerospace to help the company identify customer-oriented projects.

It has roped in Mr Jayanth Thatle and Mr Babu (earlier with Tata Motors); Dr Padmanabhan who served as CEO, Plexion, and worked with ISRO, NASA, and Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), and Dr M.S.S. Prabhu, an aerospace structure, design and analysis expert, who had worked with companies such as Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and ISRO.

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