KPIT Cummins to transfer 130 employees in semiconductor business hive off

PUNE: Product engineering and IT consulting company KPIT Cummins informed the stock exchanges that it has transferred its semiconductor hardware solutions business into a new company in partnership with Hubli-based Sankalp Semiconductor Pvt. Ltd.

It has acquired 15% stake in Sankalp as a part of this transfer and its CEO Kishor Patil has joined its board. The new company, Sankalp & KPIT Semiconductor Pvt. Ltd, will be a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hubli-based company, that provides analog & mixed-signal and RF semiconductor services.

"We wanted to pool in the best talent from Sankalp and KPIT Cummins," Pankaj Sathe, Senior Vice President and Head Semiconductor Solutions Group, KPIT Cummins, told ET.

"They are strong in the hardware business with very strong operational strength; we are strong on the software side. Sankalp is a leader in semiconductor design for our focus industries including automotive, and also has strong capabilities in the consumer electronics space. With this our joint customers will get access to one of the largest semiconductor hardware design practices and superior Analog & Mixed Signal design (AMS) expertise," he said.

The transferred business had contributed $ 5.5 million (around Rs 29 crore) to the KPIT Cummins revenues in FY12. The company received Rs 7 crore from Sankalp as a part of this transfer.

Around 130 employees of KPIT Cummins, comprising the sales, marketing and delivery team, will become a part of the new company, Mr Sathe told ET. Most of these employees are based in Bangalore, where Sankalp also has it office. Henceforth, this new company will handle the hardware related projects for KPIT's customers.

The new entity will be one of the world's largest analog & mixed signal design services provider, with systems on chip design expertise. It will serve North American, European and Japanese semiconductor companies and their captive centers in India, with primary focus on automotive, consumer electronics, and computing & communications industries.

"With this strategic transaction Sankalp Semiconductor now has a large design capacity and a strong base of qualified semiconductor design specialists. This along with the extensively experienced combined leadership team will enable us to offer our customers highly scalable and best-in-class semiconductor design services", Vivek Pawar, CEO, Sankalp Semiconductor, said.