Wipro to buy Viteos Group for $130 mn

Shaji Farooq, president and chief executive for finance solutions at Wipro, said the IT services industry is moving to an “as-a-service” model, and the future of business process services is going to be BPaaS. The Viteos acquisition adds more muscle to Wipro’s capital markets portfolio as it counts eight out of the 10 investment banks as clients.

Over the past five years, Wipro has made at least a dozen buyouts, and the organization list includes Australia-based Promax Applications Group, U.S.-based mortgage consulting firm Opus Capital Markets Consultants LLC and more.

Viteos provides customized processing and integrates post-trade operations across every asset class, currency, border or structure for the alternative investing management industry in the US, Europe and Asia. Nagendra Bandaru, SVP and head – business process services in Wipro, said the company will be able to leverage synergies to offer platform-based transformational services to its customers in the capital markets outsourcing space.

The platform can be leveraged to provide solutions across other segments of capital markets.

The acquisition reflects a broader shift in India’s software outsourcing industry towards building an arsenal of intellectual property-led high-margin software platforms rather than relying on an army of engineers to offer technology solutions to clients.

Viteos will continue to use its brand in the buy-side and extend its offerings into the larger asset management industry with support from Wipro’s presence.

Pradeep Mukherji, president and managing partner, Avasant, a technology consulting firm, said M&As by Indian technology companies are aimed at addressing the opportunity in the area of digital transformation.

This is the second acquisition of Bengaluru-headquartered Wipro this month and the company’s third acquisition in 2015. It posted revenue of $26.5 million for 2014-15, up from $22.2 million the year before. “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 & founder of Viteos Group.

Wipro rival Infosys is also active in the acquisition business. Wipro expects to close this acquisition by first quarter of 2016, subject to fulfillment of obligatory closing conditions and regulatory approvals.