Mumbai: Leading provider of consulting, technology and outsourcing services, Capgemini has acquired Hindustan Lever Limited's 51-per cent shareholding in Unilever India Shared Services Limited (Indigo).

The acquisition of Indigo is expected to be completed in October 2006. The specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Capgemini and the Unilever Group have also entered into a seven-year agreement to deliver the full range of BPO finance and account (F&A) services to Unilever companies, which are current customers of Indigo.

Indigo is a provider of financial shared services and Sarbanes Oxley compliance services to the Unilever Group throughout the world. It has operating centers in Bangalore and Chennai and has nearly 600 professionals, including about 75 chartered accountants, working in these centres. It currently serves Unilever companies in about 45 countries in Asia, Africa, Oceania, Europe and North America.

Being an in-house Unilever services business, Indigo's experience in migrating and operating a variety of accounting and financial services across a number of countries and considerable expertise in servicing the FMCG sector would lead to capability enhancement for Capgemini; Indigo's 600 staff will be absorbed by the acquirer. Capgemini intends expanding its headcount in India to10,000 by the end of 2007.

Capgemini employs approximately 61,000 people worldwide. Its 2005 global revenue was €6,954 million

"The partnership with Capgemini brings global shared services skills and technology to HLL and Unilever. It also enables the leveraging of current Indigo expertise and capabilities and represents an exciting opportunity for Indigo employees to extend the business outside of the Unilever Group," says Indigo chairman D Sundaram, finance director, Hindustan Lever Limited.

The acquisition of Indigo boosts Capgemini's position in BPO F&A services, employee services, procurement and knowledge process outsourcing and adds significant capabilities to Capgemini around innovative services such as corporate financial compliance and control.

According to Hubert Giraud, CEO, Global BPO, "This acquisition reaffirms Capgemini's commitment to increasing its presence worldwide, in particular in India, and strengthening its position in BPO F&A services. We will greatly benefit from the expertise of the Indigo team, consolidating our capabilities to serve a wide range of clients."

"In addition to providing further fillip to our F&A services out of India, we are excited about this relationship with Unilever which will further expand our footprint in India by adding the city of Chennai to our network of global delivery centers," says Baru Rao CEO, Capgemini India.