Xansa in Takeover Talks with Infosys?

Tascali UK reports that Xansa is in takeover talks with some companies.

Xansa is an outsourcing and technology company in UK wit £379.7m revenue and 8,600 employees. Bridgewell analyst Michael Donnelly said he was "99 percent sure" an Indian firm was behind the deal. "It could be Infosys, Wipro or Tata," he told Reuters. "They are big in low-cost India but their challenge is client contact. How do you achieve that? Buy a Western company. The Indian companies have a lot of cash to burn."

Quoting from Original Story

LONDON (Reuters) - IT services firm Xansa said on Friday that it was in advanced talks that could lead to a takeover offer, sending its shares up 37 percent.

The company said in a statement that the potential offer would be at a premium to the current share price -- which was already up 20 percent for the day by the time the announcement was made.

Shares in the group, which counts the BBC and the National Health Service among its clients, then rose further to be up 35 percent at 103 pence by 1:39 p.m., valuing it at 358.5 million pounds, according to Reuters data.

A spokesman for Xansa declined to comment further, but Bridgewell analyst Michael Donnelly said he was "99 percent sure" an Indian firm was behind the deal.

"It could be Infosys, Wipro or Tata," he told Reuters. "They are big in low-cost India but their challenge is client contact. How do you achieve that? Buy a Western company. The Indian companies have a lot of cash to burn."

Spokeswomen for Infosys , India’s second-largest software services exporter, and third ranked Wipro declined to comment.

A spokesman for industry leader Tata Consultancy Services also declined to comment.

Earlier a trader had said he had been told Cap Gemini was behind the bid, but the French IT group’s chief executive, Paul Hermelin, told analysts that there were no talks going on between the two firms.

Market rumours have also linked Cap Gemini with Infosys, but Hermelin told reporters there had been "no kind of contact whatsoever" between the companies.

Xansa reported in June that pretax profits rose 23.3 percent to 16.4 million pounds for the year to end April, below analyst forecasts.

The company is also without a chief executive, after Alistair Cox resigned to join recruitment group Hays , again in June. Non-executive Chairman Bill Alexander is currently in charge on an interim basis.