ADP looks for small acquisitions to grow

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Automatic Data Processing Inc (ADP.O), the world's largest payroll processing company, said on Wednesday the financial crisis was an opportunity to look for acquisitions and expand its core business.

Chris Reidy, the chief financial officer, said ADP was open to buyouts in a range of $300 million to $400 million to grow in the United States, Europe or Asia.

"The market is right for companies with a strong balance sheet, like ours. The acquisitions we are looking at now are not getting us into different business, but more rounding out the business that we have," Reidy said in the Reuters Global Finance Summit in New York on Wednesday.

In the last couple of years, the company has sold or spun off noncore assets -- such as an airline ticket clearing business based in Spain -- to focus on the employer services and vehicle dealer business.

"The biggest driver is we are not interested in large multiyear dilutive deals ... We are not interested in a fifth leg now. In fact, we sold and spun legs three and four," Reidy said.

ADP processes one in every six payroll payments in the United States and generates one-fifth of its revenues abroad.

Earlier this month, the company posted better-than-expected earnings from continuing operations, but cut its revenue growth targets for 2009 as the economy deteriorated.

(Reporting by Juan Lagorio, editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)