MACMILLAN, a leading publishing company, is looking for acquisitions in publishing and BPO sectors in India to tap the available talent here in English language, scientific know-how, institutional resources and printing skills.

Macmillan India already has a sizeable outsourced business from other companies for typesetting, data coding and conversion of editorial services to publishers globally. Leveraging on this strength, it plans to expand its investment for setting up a unit for publishing science journals, including the popular magazine Nature.

The company wants to "work with scientists and well-known names in biotechnology, pharma companies, scientists and related institutions” in India, the aim being “to help reach Indian science and its writings to the world." The Nature publishing group is the scientific publishing arm of Macmillan and combines Nature research journals, nature reviews, NPC academic journals and nature clinical practice journals, providing information for the basic biological and physical sciences.

The company recently opened a new typesetting division in line with the company's global strategy to become a major supplier of books and reference typesetting. The facility will be housed in 23,000 sq ft with a modern data centre and will have staff strength of 500 against the present level of 170.

This year Macmillan India earned a revenue of Rs 120 crore ($ 27 mn), of which Rs 77 crore ($ 17 mn) includes export earnings through information processing. Macmillan has been operating in India for over a century, with emphasis on publication of educational books and materials. Macmillan India has become the company's principal source for information processing and software development. Also, it has an annual growth rate of 20 % as against 3 % by other arms of the global company.