The e-commerce joint venture of SAIL and Tata Steel, mjunction, today said its associate company, buyjunction, is likely to form a strategic alliance with a German firm to tap overseas online trade.

"We are in discussion with one German company which is something similar to us ... The desire is to grow our business both in India and overseas and to do that growth, we are looking for a strategic alliance," mjunction Managing Director and CEO Viresh Oberoi told PTI.

Refusing to name the German firm, Oberoi said the company is in the online procurement business and has more than 200 clients in Europe.

He added that the deal is likely to be concluded in the next 2-3 months.

In addition, buyjunction would look for equity participation in the German company at a later stage, the mjunction CEO said.

"The next step would be equity participation... We would like to invest some money at a later date to get some stake in that company," he said.

buyjunction, a sister company of mjunction, is one of India's leading e-procurement platforms and is looking to expand its overseas operations.

Recently, the company signed up two new international clients in Thailand and Singapore to help them with their procurement functions and is likely to get a third client in the UK, Oberoi said.

Talking about mjunction, he said that the business volume of the company in terms of transaction value is likely to be about Rs 28,000 crore this year as against Rs 19,648 crore in the previous year.

The company, which is a 50:50 joint venture between SAIL and Tata Steel, has no immediate plans to list on the bourses.

"Only in terms of acquisition, we will require money...

So far, our promoters have not expressed any need to unlock the value of the company. We are quite comfortable with the two promoters," the mjunction CEO said.