Tata joint venture taps financial service firms
Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest information technology service provider, has set up a joint venture in Beijing with Microsoft and three mainland partners in a bid to tap the country's emerging financial services sector.
The new venture has won a multimillion-dollar contract to set up a yuan-denominated forwards trading system for the China Foreign Exchange Trade System, a central bank-held platform for interest rate and foreign exchange products.
Tata Consultancy hopes demand for information technology services in the mainland will continue to drive the economy's strong growth especially in the financial sector, which is opening up to foreign competition.
'We expect to [provide] deposit trades, stock market, clearing and banking services in China later,' Tata Consultancy executive vice-president Girija Pande said in Beijing.
The company declined to comment on the financial details of the venture, Tata Consultancy's second major deal in the mainland.
In December last year, its subsidiary Financial Network Services won a US$100 million contract from Bank of China, the country's second-largest lender, to set up its core banking system.
The company said the new venture would also focus on serving the manufacturing and telecommunications sectors and government organisations.
Tata Consultancy owns 65 per cent of the venture while Microsoft holds 10 per cent.
The remaining 25 per cent interest is split among Beijing Zhongguancun Software Park Development, Uniware and Tianjin Huayuan Software Area Construction & Development.
The mainland joint-venture partners are all supported by the National Development and Reform Commission.
The joint venture now has 800 staff members, who account for 1 per cent of Tata Consultancy's workforce.
