Indian IT systems house HCL Technologies is to acquire the fixed assets of UK life and pensions outsourcer Liberata Financial Services for $2 million.
LFS manages over three million policies on behalf of clients including AXA, Barclays, Resolution, Chesnara and Save and Prosper. The company will earn revenues of about $60 million this year and has an order book of $540 million to be executed over the next few years.
As part of this transaction, HCL will acquire four delivery centres in the UK and 800 staff. The Indian company says it will invest $24 million in the business over the next three years.
Commenting on the acquisition, Ranjit Narasimhan, president and CEO of HCL BPO, says: "This strategic acquisition of LFS enhances HCL's ability to become an end-to-end provider of business process outsourcing services in the financial services space."
News of the deal comes three months after the Financial Services Authority fined Liberata £525,000 for failures in its systems and controls for managing and issuing pensions policies. Liberata's failings meant 30,000 policyholders did not receive information and 161 of them lost a total of £17,584, the watchdog claimed.
Robert Gogel, CEO of Liberata Limited, says: "We are pleased to have found an appropriate buyer for this business, thereby assuring its long-term future development. We have made significant investments in people, platform and service line development...This sale will enable Liberata to focus on its core BPO business in the public sector."