Wipro to acquire US BPO Viteos Group for $130 million
23 Dec 2015
Wipro Ltd, India's third-largest IT services provider, today announced the acquisition of Viteos Group, a US-based provider of business process outsourcing services for the alternative investment management industry, for a consideration of $130 million.
This is the second acquisition of Bengaluru-headquartered Wipro this month and the company's third acquisition in 2015. Earlier, this month, Wipro had agreed to acquire German IT and consulting services provider Cellent AG, for $77 million (around Rs517 crore).
Somerset, New Jersey-based Viteos Group provides customised straight-through-processing and integrates post-trade operations across every asset class, currency, border or structure for the alternative investment management industry in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Founded in 2003, Viteos is a leader in shadow-accounting services and offers a full range of business process as a service (BpasS) outsourcing through its over 400 employees.
Wipro has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the New Jersey-based company, weeks after it acquired German IT consulting and software service provider Cellent from Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg (LBBW) for €73.5million.
Wipro currently is one of the leading providers of business process services (BPS) to some of the global investment banks. The company specialises in platform-led transformation and utility-based offerings in reconciliation, KYC, settlements, middle office, asset servicing, syndicated loans and reference data solutions, with coverage across asset classes.
Viteos licenses its proprietary platform, which offer transformation and integration of post-trade operations. This platform can be leveraged to launch solutions across other segments of capital markets.
Viteos will retain its identity to leverage its brand in the buy-side and expand its offerings into the larger asset management industry with the backing of Wipro's size and presence. The management team at Viteos will continue with the business and drive the platform based outsourcing business services.
"The IT services industry is moving to an 'as-a-Service' model, and the future of BPS is going to be BPaaS (Business Process as-a-Service). Our strategy is to invest in industry vertical platforms which will provide platform-based services to our clients in transaction/outcome-based pricing models. Viteos will further our strategy in the Capital markets domain," said Shaji Farooq, president and chief executive, finance solutions, Wipro Limited
"We welcome Viteos employees to the Wipro Family. We are excited to join hands with Viteos and expand our Capital markets portfolio in fund accounting services and enhance our Business Process Services capabilities," said Nagendra Bandaru, senior vice president and head of BPS, Wipro Limited.
"Our search for a global partner who gives Viteos exceptional market reach in expanding ourpresence while preserving the entrepreneurial characteristics of Viteos culminated with this acquisition by Wipro. We are excited to be part of a trusted global leader and the transaction is a further recognition of our value and validation of our commitment to deliver excellence through our investments in people, process and technology," said Shankar Iyer, CEO and founder of Viteos Group.
The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed in the quarter ending 31 March 2016.
