INTERVIEW-India's Satyam: no sign of U.S. outsourcing slowdown
NEW DELHI, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Satyam Computer Services Ltd (SATY.BO), India's fourth-ranked software services exporter, is not seeing any indication of a slowdown in outsourcing by U.S. firms, but a strong rupee is a concern, its chairman said. "We have not felt, and there are no indications to the effect that they may want to slow down their engagements with us," B. Ramalinga Raju told Reuters in an interview on Monday.
"On the contrary, there are many instances where they are wanting to more intimately engage with us because it is in these testing times that they have to demonstrate that they are managing their affairs in the best possible way," he said.
Investors have been worried about the impact of the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis on IT spending.
New York-listed Satyam (SAY.N), which specialises in business software, will be able to maintain its margins despite a rupee that is at its highest levels in nearly a decade, Raju said.
"That is obviously a concern, we have handled that so far fairly well," he said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum India Summit.
"We have been able to preserve the margins as we have guided and we will continue to do so," he said.
The outsourcing deal pipeline was "healthy" and Satyam stood by its guidance for the fiscal third quarter to Dec. 31 and for the full year, Raju said.
Satyam competes with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS.BO), Infosys Technologies (INFY.BO) and Wipro Ltd (WIPR.BO) at home and companies like Accenture (ACN.N) and Electronic Data Systems EDS.N globally.
Satyam is looking to grow its business in Asia-Pacific and Europe, which could cut its dependence on the U.S. market.
"When it comes to acquisitions, the non-English countries are more attractive than others," he said.
The Hyderabad-based company counts General Electric (GE.N), Qantas Airways (QAN.AX) and Nissan Motor (7201.T) among its leading clients.
(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Mark Williams)
((sumeet.chatterjee@reuters.com; +91-99800 15087; Reuters Messaging: sumeet.chatterjee.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: SATYAM US/ Keywords: SATYAM US/
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