* Aims to up overseas ops to 10% of sales in 5 yrs from 2% now * To seek more acquisitions after Tata Teleservices deal * To focus on investments in Asia but open to other regions (Adds comments, details, background)
By Sachi Izumi and Noriyuki Hirata
TOKYO, Dec 4 (Reuters) - NTT DoCoMo Inc aims to boost its overseas business to account for 10 percent of sales within five years from 2 percent now, as it continues to seek acquisitions after an investment in an Indian operator, a senior executive said on Thursday.
DoCoMo, Japan's biggest mobile phone operator, last month said it would pay $2.7 billion for a 26 percent stake in Tata Teleservices, India's No. 6 wireless carrier, making an entry into the world's fastest-growing major mobile market.
Toshinari Kunieda, senior vice president and managing director of DoCoMo's global business division, said the company aims to expand its overseas business through more acquisitions and increased cooperation with firms in which it has already invested.
"Considering Japan's future economy with the ageing society ... we just have to go abroad," he told Reuters in an interview.
DoCoMo spent nearly 1.9 trillion yen ($20.4 billion) in the late 1990s and early 2000s to invest in operators around the world, to promote use of its i-mode mobile Internet technology and ensure the adoption of 3G network on the same W-CDMA standard it uses.
But it saw its investments sour, and pulled out of AT&T Wireless Services Inc, Dutch operator KPN Mobile N.V. and Hutchison 3G UK Holdings after incurring heavy losses.
DoCoMo is now back on an overseas acquisition spree as its home market is expected to show little growth. Prior to its entry into India, DoCoMo took a stake in Bangladesh's No. 3 cellphone carrier for $350 million.
DoCoMo also has stakes in companies like South Korea's KTF and Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT).
Kunieda said DoCoMo will prioritise beefing up its Asia-Pacific operations but will not exclude the United States and Europe as possible destinations for future investments.
"It is easier in the United States and Europe to bring out strategic synergies," he said.
"Especially in Europe, 30 percent of subscribers already use mobile Internet ... and LTE is already coming into view," he said. "It is possible to develop applications, content and mobile phones with a partner."
Through capital ties, DoCoMo aims to reap monetary returns such as profits and dividends as well as what the company calls "strategic synergies", which include increased roaming revenues and lower mobile phone costs through joint procurement.
LTE, or Long-Term Evolution, is next-generation network technology that DoCoMo supports. (Reporting by Sachi Izumi and Noriyuki Hirata; Editing by Chris Gallagher)