Investment bank UBS has sold its 2,000-strong Indian IT services and business process outsourcing unit to Cognizant.
IT services firm Cognizant said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday that it was paying about $75 million (£46 million) for the unit, which would be funded from the company's current cash reserves.
Subject to certain conditions, the transaction is expected to close in December, Cognizant said.
Ulrich Korner, chief operating officer at UBS, said: “Cognizant's broad banking and financial services expertise and its cultural fit with UBS complement the competencies provided by the India Service Center today, while providing technology capabilities that expand the services we can buy from India and support our cost savings, efficiency and flexibility objectives.”
The move reflects a growing trend, after the recession, for financial services companies to sell off their large Indian services subsidiaries, and outsource the work to service providers.
Citigroup, for example, sold its Indian BPO operation to Tata Consultancy Services, and its IT services subsidiary to Wipro, in return for business from Citigroup.
The acquisition of the Indian subsidiary, UBS India Service Centre (UBSIC), will enable Cognizant of Teaneck, New Jersey, to expand in the BPO market, starting with financial services BPO, said Siddharth Pai, a partner at outsourcing consultancy firm Technology Partners International in Houston, Texas.
Cognizant will also be able to expand in the European market after the acquisition, he added, while also deriving revenue from its investment from the start.
In its fiscal year ended 31 December, 79.1 per cent of Cognizant's revenue came from customers in North America, with 19.2 per cent of revenue from clients in Europe.
The acquisition gives Cognizant 2,000 more staff in India, and also business from the UBS Group. Cognizant said it has entered into a services agreement with UBS whereby it will provide a range of BPO, IT, and remote infrastructure management services to UBS divisions around the globe.
In its filing to the SEC, Cognizant said that it expects to receive about $442 million in revenue from the services agreement during its five-year term.
Registration is free, and gives you full access to our extensive white paper library, case studies & analysis, downloads & speciality areas, and more.
The sale by UBS, and those previously by Citibank and others, is not an indication of a definite trend that foreign companies will stop setting up subsidiaries in India to do development work or offer services, analysts said.
"The decision to do it yourself or to outsource the work is a continuous one," Pai said. The recession may have pushed some financial services companies to try to cash in on their investments in large Indian subsidiaries, he added.
Be the first to comment on this article!