US software firm SunGard to expand in India
25 Jun 2009
SunGard, one of the world's leading software and IT services company owned by global private equity firms, is planning to expand its financial systems operations in India through acquisitions and has appointed a new managing director for India sales.
Pennsylvania, US-based SunGard has recently appointed Atul Sareen, a former vice-president with IBM Software in India, as managing director of India sales to further its sales revenue in India.
SunGard, with 2008 revenue exceeding $5 billion, ranked 435 on the Fortune 500, has been operating in India since 1993 with its global delivery offices in Bangalore and Pune. It will open an office in Mumbai and increase its headcount in India from the present 2,000 to 3,000 by the year-end.
SunGard, the third largest provider of business applications software after Oracle and SAP, provides domain expertise, product knowledge and specialised technology services to support its's solutions and customers worldwide, will through its Mumbai office, enhance business opportunities and support its local Indian customer base comprising of leading institutions in the banking, insurance and energy sectors.
''This expansion of our Indian operations underlines our commitment to the local financial services industry, and to the long-term potential we see here," said Atul Sareen. "We have a range of category-leading solutions across areas such as insurance, trading, banking, energy and wealth management, and we're excited about the enhanced offerings our growth can give Indian customers.''
SunGard, started in 1982 and went public in 1986. In 2005, it was acquired by a consortium of seven private equity and investment firms in for $11.3 billion.
With the 160 acquisitions it has made since 1986, it has diversified its IT business from a single product in the disaster recovery business, to four others- availability services, financial systems, higher education and public sector.
Since the Asia Pacific accounts for only 2 per cent of SunGard's revenue of over $5 billion, the chunk of its earnings come from the Americas with about 74 per cent and 24 per cent from Europe. The company now is looking to acquire an Indian IT firm in order to expand its portfolio, increase its customer base and revenue.
SunGard Financial Systems supports the accounting and management of more than $25 trillion in investment assets and process more than 5 million trades each day and more than 1,600 institutions, serving more than 10 million students, rely on SunGard Higher Education to support their digital campus.
