L'indien Kanbay racheté par CapGemini

Source : Boursorama et AOF

Capgemini a finalisé l'acquisition de Kanbay International. Les actionnaires de la société indienne de services informatiques spécialisée dans les services financiers, ont approuvé jeudi dernier le rachat de leur groupe à un prix de 29 dollars l'action en numéraire, valorisant Kanbay à 1,25 milliard de dollars. Avec l'accord des actionnaires de Kanbay et la levée de toutes les autres conditions suspensives, l'opération annoncée le 26 octobre a été clôturée vendredi.

La société résultant de l'intégration de Kanbay et Capgemini, se classe parmi les cinq premières entreprises de conseil en informatique dans le monde et propose à ses clients une offre globale qui s'étend des Etats-Unis à l'Europe et jusqu'en Asie-Pacifique. Avec un effectif de 7 600 collaborateurs aux USA, au Royaume Uni, en Inde et dans la région Asie-Pacifique, Kanbay vient augmenter le réseau mondial de professionnels opérant dans le secteur Service Financier chez Capgemini à plus de 15 000 personnes, et porter les effectifs du groupe en Inde à près de 12 000 collaborateurs.

Grâce à cette acquisition, l'Inde devient le deuxième pays du groupe (18 % des effectifs) et Capgemini est présent dans six grandes villes en Inde : Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai et Bangalore.

Pour en savoir plus lisez l'article.

C'est le tour d'Infosys de faire l "€uro shopping"

Source : Economic Times

Bangalore-based IT major Infosys Technologies is scouting for acquisitions of mid-sized BPO companies in Europe. Sources in the industry said the company is looking at deals valued at over Rs 400 crore. Infosys, which has been on the look-out for a deal for some time now, plans to increase the scale of its BPO outfit through an acquisition.

“We are looking at acquisition in various geographies, including Europe in both IT services and BPO. In case of BPOs, the driver for Europe would be local language capability, client-base and platform,” a company source told ET.

Sources close to the development said the company is already in discussions with a few players for an acquisition. The company, however, did not confirm this.

Infosys BPO started as a joint venture between Infosys and Citibank Investments in 2002. During the first quarter of the current fiscal, Infosys bought Citi’s 23% stake in the company for Rs 530 crore. The company’s name was also changed from Progeon, after the BPO became Infosys’ wholly-owned subsidiary.

The company has operations in India, the Czech Republic, China and Philippines, through a partner. Infosys has provided a FY07 revenue guidance of $125 million for its BPO outfit.

Infosys BPO recently won a contract from one of the largest integrated oil companies in the world to deliver a wide range of indirect procurement services, including third-party hiring, commodity sourcing, indirect services sourcing, and supplier performance management. Recent wins include one of the best known US media companies.

Expanding its delivery footprint, Infosys BPO recently opened a 900-seat centre in Jaipur and announced plans to increase its capacity significantly over a 3-5 year period. The company also opened a centre in Delhi.

In December last year, the shareholders of Infosys BPO approved a buy-back of up to 12,79,963 equity shares at a market value of Rs 604 per equity share. Pursuant to the buy-back offer, Infosys BPO bought back 11,39,469 equity shares, which were subsequently cancelled on December 29, 2006. As of December 31 2006, Infosys holds 99.91% of the outstanding equity shares of Infosys BPO.

Accord de libre-échange entre l'Inde et 4 pays Européens

Source : PTI

India is in talks with four European countries -- Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein -- to strike a comprehensive economic agreement that would facilitate free trade relations, Swiss officials said here. A joint study group has been established by India and the four countries (EFTA States) to explore the feasibility of such an agreement, they said.

"We hope that draft of that agreement could be finished by November this year", Swiss Ambassador to India, Dominique Dreyer, told PTI here. "Then, draft has to be ratified by the five countries concerned".

Earlier, addressing an investment conference here today organised by "Location Switzerland", Ambassdor Monika Ruhl-Burzi, Head of Berne-based Bilateral Economic Relations Division, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, said conclusion of such an agreement establishing free trade relations would be a major milestone in economic ties between the countries and provide a fresh impetus in this direction.

Dreyer said Switzerland was trying to set up a working group with India on intellectual property rights and also seeking to enhance cooperation in science and technology fields.

'LOCATION Switzerland' is the official programme of the Swiss government for the promotion of investments into that country.

Swiss officials said "access to European markets, a highly specialised and multinational workforce and a modest corporate tax rate are just some of the many attributes Switzerland provides foreign companies".

Nissan et Renault veulent faire des voitures pour la classe moyenne indienne

Source : Economic Times

Japenese car maker Nissan is co-developing a new small car platform for developing markets along with its alliance partner Renault, joining a growing list of global car makers seeking to exploit India’s strengths in the volume car business.

This new platform is specially targeted at emerging markets like India and Russia and comes as further validation of India’s emerging status as a global small car hub.

Sources close to the development have indicated that Nissan and Renault are working on a small car, most likely a B segment hatchback, which is expected to be one of Nissan’s flagship models in India. Further details about the new platform were not available.

People close to Nissan say that India may become an important manufacturing hub for the new small car as Nissan is known to be targeting big volumes in its India facility.

Easy availability of finance, increased salaries, higher proportion of double income households, a higher propensity to spend and little improvement in public transportation have led to a boom in India’s mini and compact car segments. Accounting for over 75% of passenger car sales last year, the small car segment is poised for a major expansion with a slew of new models waiting to hit the market in the next two years.

The compact car roster currently includes Volkswagen which is putting up a greenfield plant in Pune to manufacture a derivative of its Polo model and General Motors which has already rolled out the Aveo U-VA in the hot hatch segment and is working on the Chevrolet Spark to target the mainstream small car segment. Also lined up are products like the Grande Punto from the Tata Fiat combine, the next-generation Honda Jazz and a small car from Daihatsu to be rolled out by Toyota. Besides these market leader Maruti Udyog is also expected launch a host of new cars in the segment.

“On new product issues we have no clear statement to make at this stage,” Nissan India MD Yoshie Motohiro told ET. However, she said that in the past, the alliance has worked towards greater collaboration in product development. “The policy of the Nissan-Renault alliance is that if both companies find a win-win situation, we go through with any project. So, according to that strategy, we have collaborated in the past on common platforms and powertrains.”

However, Nissan and Renault have never before jointly developed an entire model. Renault’s success with the low-cost mid-sized car Logan may have gotten its Japanese partner interested in collaborating with it for a new car for emerging markets.

Though it has set itself an ambitious target of manufacturing 3,00,000 vehicles a year in India, Nissan is yet to reveal its strategy for the country. On Nissan’s local manufacturing plans Ms Motohiro said: “As announced in November, we are still actively discussing with Renault-Mahindra whether a collaboration can be achieved. So I cannot comment on that. Nissan will take a call on the matter by March."

As announced by Renault/Nissan top boss Mr Carlos Ghosn in November 2006, Nissan is expected to join the Mahindra-Renault joint venture company for manufacturing its cars in India. But the company is also known to be exploring other options like setting up a greenfield facility to meet its requirements.

Maintenant c'est Glenmark qui veut acheter en €uros

Source : Economic Times

Leading mid-sized pharma company Glenmark Pharmaceuticals will soon enter the European market by acquiring a front-end pharmaceutical company for about Rs 100 crore. Glenmark MD Glenn Saldanha told ET that the target company is in Central Europe and the deal is likely to be through before the end of March.

It has a strong marketing force and some approved products, Mr Saldanha said without disclosing the company’s name. Glenmark just has an office in the UK now for business development.

Merchant bankers said there are many small and medium-sized family-owned pharma firms in Europe that have low profitability and are up for sale. They would suit the needs of Indian companies planning to enter the EU market, they said.

Glenmark is already present in over 80 countries including the US in the business of finished products and key ingredients called APIs. It is strong in therapeutic segments such as dermatology, internal medicine, paediatrics, gynaecology, ENT, diabetes and oncology.

The company is also in talks with a few MNCs to licence out the Europe rights for its experimental asthma drug oglemilast. US-based Forest Laboratories Inc has the North American market rights and Teijin Pharma has the Japanese market rights for the drug.