In what will be the largest ever overseas acquisition by an Indian company in the IT services domain, Infosys Technologies has made an offer to acquire UK-based SAP consultancy services firm Axon Group in an all-cash deal valued at £407.1 million (Rs 3,310 crore).

The move marks a clear attempt by India’s second largest software services exporter to move up the value chain in the services spectrum. Kapil Dev Singh, country manager for technology research firm IDC India, said the acquisition signals a trend among Indian IT services firms to enhance their focus from low hanging maintenance kind of services, with a higher bias for top line growth, to high-end domain services that could add more to the bottom line.

Infosys will pay a price of $11.12 per share for the London Stock Exchange-listed Axon, which is a 33% premium over its six month average price and 19% premium over its closing price last Friday.

Axon, which has 2,000 employees, reported revenue of £204.5 million and a profit after taxation of £20.2 million in the year ended December 31, 2007. The UK Company’s revenue is estimated to be growing at 42.7% year-on-year.