NEW DELHI - INDIAN outsourcing provider HCL Technologies has offered more than US$800m (S$1.14b) for Britain's Axon Group, opening a bidding war for the information technology company.

New Delhi-based HCL, controlled by tycoon Shiv Nadar, offered on late Friday to purchase Axon for 441.1m pounds (S$1.16b).

The offer trumped a bid by Indian rival Infosys Technologies, ranked the country's second-largest software services provider by sales.

The all-cash offer at 650 pence a share was 8.3 per cent more than the 600-pence offer by Infosys, based in India's hi-tech city of Bangalore.

HCL chief executive Vineet Nayar called the takeover bid a 'transformational opportunity' to become a 'significant player' in the business services arena.

The company is India's fifth-largest outsourcing provider.

If either Indian company wins Axon, it would mark the biggest ever foreign takeover by an Indian software firm.

Infosys announced in late August it had clinched a deal to purchase Axon for 407 million pounds.

But Axon welcomed the rival bid, saying in a statement it showed 'HCL has recognised the quality of the Axon business.'

Infosys, meanwhile, said in a statement it was 'considering its position' and urged Axon shareholders 'to take no action at this time.'

It promised a further announcement 'in due course.'

Axon employs 2,000 employees and gets 55 per cent of its sales from Europe and 40 per cent from the US.

Indian outsourcing firms have been seeking to reduce their reliance on the US market, which represents 60 per cent of the sector's revenues, in the wake of the US-led credit crunch.

HCL said the bid offered a 43 per cent premium to the average closing price of 455.7 pence for Axon shares for the three months ended on August 22, the day before Infosys made its Axon bid.

Axon's shares had been climbing steadily since the Infosys bid in expectation of a bigger offer.

Axon shares closed up 7.6 per cent or 48 pence at 682 pence in London trading, suggesting investors expected a higher counter-offer. There has also been market speculation about interest in Axon from Japanese companies.

The bid is another sign of cash-flushed Indian firms spreading their wings abroad as they seek to rapidly become big-scale global players. -- AFP