Kavveri Telecom looking to buy European firm

Kavveri Telecom Products, a maker of telecommunication equipment such as antennas, today said it would consider an acquisition in Europe at its board meeting on 20 May.

"A meeting of the board of directors of the company will be held on 20 May 2011 to mull an acquisition in Europe," Kavveri Telecom said in a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange. It didn't elaborate.

The company recently launched a linearly polarised customer premise equipment (CPE) antenna for the North American market. This antenna will serve the needs of companies providing LTE and other services in these frequency bands, it said, adding that it is planning to take this product to markets like Europe, West Asia and Africa.

Earlier this week, the company said it was in talks with private equity investors to raise between $8.94 million and $11.2 million by selling a stake in its infrastructure unit.

"The sale would be through an issue of fresh shares," managing director Shivakumar Reddy had said at the time.

The Indian telecom products maker owns 51 per cent of Kavveri Telecom Infrastructure, while the rest is held by the founding family.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, today, Reddy said the company that Kavveri is looking to acquire in Europe is into manufacture of RF products and antennas used in different wireless technologies.

He added that the company is not profit-making. "That is why we are acquiring it - we can turn it around fast, and we have expertise. Over the last four years, we have acquired four different companies in North America and turned them around. This company is doing revenues of about €15 million," he said.