Tata Technologies Limited (TTL) has received unconditional acceptance for 92.5 per cent of the equity shares of Incat International Plc, a UK-based company listed on the alternative investment market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange. The company in August had made a cash offer of Rs 416 crores through its subsidiary Tata Technologies Inc USA, or TTUS to acquire Incat. TTL is owned 94.31 per cent by Tata Motors Ltd which will advance the full funds required for the acquisition of Incat as loan to TTL.

TTL would later arrange for its own funds, believed to be Rs 200 crores from internal accruals as equity contribution and another Rs 245 crores to be raised through external loans. Post-acquisition of Incat, TTL is set to emerge as a leading end-toend automotive engineering and design services company, which will have the capacity to create greater value for its customers by combining the state-of-the-art technologies of two companies to bring down costs and reduce time to market. TTL has said that TTUS had made this cash offer at 220 pence per share (Rs 169.40 per share) which represents a 4 per cent premium on Incat's closing price of 211.5 pence per share as on August 17, 2005.

Both TTL and Incat provide engineering and design services and product lifecycle management, or PLM products and services to manufacturers and their suppliers in the international automotive, aerospace and engineering markets. TTL says that its offshore capabilities in the field of engineering automation services combined with the high-end onshore strengths of Incat are expected to offer a strong and seamless onshore/offshore delivery capability for these markets.

TTL and Incat together have a combined turnover of approximately Rs 695 crores. Incat, with its 650 employees and a strong customer base in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, posted an operating profit of Rs 18.65 crores on a turnover of Rs 507.32 crores for its year ended August 31, 2004. TTL's customer base includes automobile majors like Tata Motors, Daimler Chrysler, Ford, GM and Airbus.