Under terms of the agreement, Deutsche Bank will acquire 19.4 million shares of HCL stock at the price of INR 361, valuing the deal at INR 6.98bn ($155m). New Delhi-based HCL said the deal is in line with its plans to acquire the remaining 49% stake in Singapore-based DSI Financial Solutions Pte Ltd, and along with its subsidiary DSL Software. Deutsche Bank will then have completed its divestiture of the business.
At the time of the original deal in September 2001, HCL took a 51% stake in Deutsche Software Ltd, the offshore software division of Deutsche Bank, for $25m, and this was then renamed DSL Software. The deal gave HCL a majority stake in the operation, and also gave it first refusal on all IT services business for Deutsche Bank in India for the first seven years of the joint venture. HCL also began to target other large financial services businesses through the venture.
DSL Software, which is based in Bangalore, India, provides IT consulting, application development, and application maintenance services for Deutsche Bank’s operations in Frankfurt, Singapore, London, and New York. At the time of the initial deal, the company employed some 450 people, but it has since grown to employ approximately 2,000 people today based in offices in New York, London, Frankfurt, and Singapore. HCL plans to rename the operation HCL Technologies Banking and Financial Services once it has completed the acquisition of the remaining shares in the business.
