Satyam sees no U.S. outsourcing slowdown

By Sumeet Chatterjee

BANGALORE (Reuters) - Indian software firm Satyam Computer Services sees no slowdown in U.S. outsourcing demand even as the world's largest economy lumbers under the weight of a housing downturn, a senior official said.

"U.S. is beginning to report a good pipeline now, especially in retail where recently we had some good success," Virender Aggarwal, a director, told Reuters in a phone interview from Manila on Friday. "The sentiment stays bullish as of today."

Investors have been worried about the impact of the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis on IT spending and Cisco Systems Inc Chief Executive John Chambers said last week that the company had seen "dramatic decreases" in orders from U.S. banks.

India's No. 4 software services exporter Satyam, which specialises in business software, is negotiating about three deals close to $100 million each and five deals in the range of $20-$50 million, Aggarwal said.

Seven of those potential deals are in Asia-Pacific and one in South Africa, said Aggarwal, who heads the business in Asia-Pacific, Africa, India and the Middle East.

"My feeling is about three deals will close by January," he said.

The United States contributed 58.4 percent of New York-listed Satyam's revenue in the September quarter, down from 66 percent in the year earlier period, as it bagged more outsourcing deals in Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Indian software firms get more than half their revenue from the United States, but companies are looking to expand business elsewhere because of a more than 12 percent rise in the value of the rupee against the dollar.