Teknosoft buy provides a direct entry into the Swiss and French markets: N Chandrasekaran

Our Corporate Bureau
01 November 2006

A $9 billion bill for Corus doesn't appear to have deterred the Tata's from shopping for more. Tata Consultancy Services has now picked up a 75% stake in Swiss company, TKS-Teknosoft for $80 million, and the acquisition is expected to help the Indian software giant access the Swiss and French financial markets, reports CNBC-TV18.

The acquisition will add private banking and wealth management software to the firm's kitty. According to TCS, it will continue looking for more expansions in Europe.

N Chandrasekaran, head-global operations, TCS, says that the Teknosoft buyout not only provides a direct entry into the Swiss and French markets but also adds two new banking products, Alpha and e-Portfolio, to the company's portfolio. According to Chandrasekaran, Teknosoft's 2005 revenue was 71.5 million Swiss Francs and its profits for that year were 9.5 million Swiss Francs.

According to Chandrasekaran, TCS will now integrate banking products under a common brand. The acquisition, he says, gives a wider footprint for TCS's banking product, Quartz.

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with Chandrasekaran, Head-Global Operations at TCS:

What is the reason for this move, to buy out stake and how material is the Swiss and French market for TCS?
It's a very important move. Basically, there are three important elements to the deal. One is that the partner; TKS Teknosoft, was representing us in the Switzerland and the French markets, so now we have full direct entry into these markets. The second aspect is that they had distributional marketing rights of our flagship banking product, Quartz, across Europe and some parts of North Africa. But now we will have full marketing and distribution rights for Quartz worldwide — that's another significant aspect.