Calcutta, Oct. 2: British consultancy major Axon Group today decided to go ahead with a £441-million acquisition offer from HCL Technologies, while withdrawing its support to the £407-million bid from Infosys.

The HCL offer is 3.8 per cent higher than Infosys, which had offered 600 pence per share for Axon on August 25. HCL had made a bid of 650 pence per share for the UK firm on September 26.

In a regulatory filing in London, Axon said its board “has withdrawn its recommendation of the Infosys offer and intends unanimously to recommend the HCL offer when it is made”.

Axon said it had a long association with HCL and was happy to learn that the Indian company had “recognised the quality of Axon’s business”.

A 60-hour deadline for Infosys to make a fresh offer for Axon has expired.

The deadline forbade the board of Axon from withdrawing its recommendation of the Infosys offer in case of a competing bid.

The 60-hour period began from the time Infosys was notified about the competing proposal.

However, analysts and the industry circle feel Infosys can make a counter offer of 700 pence or above.

Infosys officials said the company was evaluating its options and any further move would be announced at an appropriate time.

HCL representatives said they were confident of winning over the Axon board.

In case Axon’s shareholders decide in favour of HCL, Infosys stands to be paid one per cent of the deal amount as inducement.

After HCL’s offer, Infosys had said that it was considering its position and had urged “Axon shareholders to take no action at this time”.

The acquisition of Axon will help HCL increase its foothold in Europe. It earns around 29 per cent of its revenues from Europe.

Axon’s US exposure is 34 per cent while in Asia Pacific it is five per cent.

Axon provides consultancy services to multinational firms in systems applications and products (SAP). It has about 2,000 employees.

Founded in 1994, Axon has offices in the UK, North America, Malaysia and Australia.

Its clients include Maruti, Honda, Ford, Mercedes and Nissan in the auto segment, GE Cap and Barclays in financial services, Vodafone, BT and Motorola in telecommunications and AstraZeneca, Novartis and GSK in pharmaceuticals.