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TCS to acquire French IT firm Alti for $97.5M

By Bhawna Gupta

  • 09 Apr 2013
TCS to acquire French IT firm Alti for $97.5M

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), part of the Tata Group, has signed definitive agreements to acquire French IT services company Alti SA for €75 million ($97.51 million) in an all-cash deal. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.

The acquisition will further strengthen TCS’ position in France, the third-largest IT services market in Europe, and provide the firm access to blue-chip French and European clients in banking, luxury, manufacturing and utilities sectors.

Shares of TCS were trading at Rs 1509.50 a unit, up 1.92 per cent at 12.38 pm in a strong Mumbai market on Tuesday.

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The deal will be the largest overseas acquisition by TCS, India’s largest software exporter, while it has closed some large deals within the country. TCS also bought captive operations of grocery retailer SuperValu Inc. for $100 million in 2010 and the back-office operations of the Citigroup for $505 million in 2008, according to VCCEdge.

“This acquisition underlines our long-term, strategic commitment to France. Alti SA will help us serve our clients in France and across Europe more comprehensively, with an expanded set of services and solutions, bringing the best of TCS to French corporations,” said N. Chandrasekaran, CEO and MD of TCS.

“This is a significant step that will benefit both our clients and employees. Supplementing our current services with TCS’ renowned global expertise will provide tremendous additional value to our clients while our employees will secure the advantages of building their careers in a larger global organisation, which is considered a top employee in Europe,” said Andre Bensimon, co-founder of Alti SA.

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Alti SA specialises in services such as enterprise solutions, assurance and CRM solutions. It is a privately held company, owned by its management and two private equity funds – CM-CIC LBO Partners and IDI – which supported its growth from the revenue base €64 million in 2007 to €126 million in 2012. The firm employs around 1,200 people across France, Belgium and Switzerland.

Founded in 1968, TCS started operating in France in 1992 and caters to more than 50 clients in the country. The Indian IT major offers a bouquet of services including application development & management, migration & re-engineering, system integration, testing and performance engineering. It generated consolidated revenues of $10.17 billion for the year ended March 31, 2012.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)

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