NTT Data Corp. intends to buy more companies abroad to help reach its target of averaging 10 percent annual profit growth over the next four years.
"There's no doubt that acquisition is a very important strategy," President Toshio Iwamoto said Monday in an interview. "Overseas will be important, as we can expand our coverage."
Buying companies outside Japan is also part of the company's plan to boost sales between ¥200 billion and ¥300 billion over four years, Iwamoto said. NTT Data, a unit of NTT Corp. and the second-largest computer services provider, had announced plans over the last three years to acquire 21 companies, including Boston-based Keane International and Italy's Value Team.
The company is also trying to cut costs by automating more programming tasks, Iwamoto said. The target to raise profit 10 percent a year is derived from NTT Data's goal to raise earnings per share to ¥20,000 in the year ending March 2016 from ¥10,854 last fiscal year, he said. Earnings per share have fallen 4.2 percent on average over the past five years, Bloomberg data show.