UBS has agreed to sell its Indian business processing outsourcing unit to Cognizant in a deal that also sees the Swiss bank and vendor sign a multi-year services contract. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Hyderabad-based UBS India Service Centre employees around 2000 staff. It was built in 2006 and provides the bank with IT, operations and research services.
According to Dow Jones Newswires, an internal memo says the sale is part of a new outsourcing strategy of buying rather than building.
Cognizant will now provide BPO, knowledge process outsourcing, IT, and remote infrastructure management services to UBS divisions around the globe.
Ulrich Korner, group COO, UBS, says: "Cognizant's broad banking and financial services expertise and its cultural fit with UBS complement the competencies provided by the India Service Center today, while providing technology capabilities that expand the services we can buy from India and support our cost savings, efficiency and flexibility objectives."
The deal is expected to be completed by the end of the year, subject to closing conditions.
In June speculation grew that UBS was looking to offload the Indian unit. Press reports at the time suggested the bank was in talks with Infosys and Wipro about selling it along with a centre in Poland for a combined fee of $200 million.
Last year Citi sold its Indian back office division to Tata Consultancy Services in a deal worth around $505 million. The bank followed this up in January with the sale of its Indian IT outsourcing arm Citi Technology Services to Wipro for $127 million.
Morgan Stanley is also understood to be trying to sell off its back office operations in the country, with Infosys and Wipro potential buyers.