by CIO Staff

India’s Sonata Expands in Euro IT Services Market

News
Sep 27, 20062 mins
Outsourcing

Indian outsourcing company Sonata Software is acquiring a majority stake in the IT services subsidiary of TUI, a European tourism and shipping group based in Hanover, Germany.

The subsidiary, called TUI InfoTec GmbH, will give Sonata an entry into Europe’s infrastructure management services market. It already offers software development services in Europe.

TUI InfoTec currently provides services for companies within the TUI Group, which include Thomson Holidays in the U.K. It will now offer those services to other companies in Europe, while remaining the preferred IT supplier to the TUI Group, said B. Ramaswamy, Sonata’s president and managing director, on Wednesday.

Sonata, of Bangalore, has agreed to buy a 50.1 percent stake in TUI InfoTec for €18 million (US$22.9 million) cash. The remaining stake will be held onto by TUI.

TUI InfoTec posted revenue of about €130 million last year.

The divestment by TUI reflects its strategy to focus on its core business, Ramaswamy said.

Sonata plans to offer part of the infrastructure management and software development services remotely from India, where it has about 1,700 staff, Ramaswamy said. TUI InfoTec, which has about 400 staff, will keep its current operations and staff in Europe. “It is important to have a local face in the European market,” Ramaswamy said.

Sonata has been active in Europe for over a decade, offering software development services there. Under an agreement with TUI, all infrastructure management services contracts in Europe will be routed through TUI InfoTec. Software development contracts will be routed through TUI InfoTec only for customers in Germany, Ramaswamy said.

-John Ribeiro, IDG News Service (Bangalore Bureau)

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