NIIT bags $40-m Eurostar IT deal

NEW DELHI: Eurostar, the rail network which connects London to Paris and Brussels, on Monday awarded contract to manage its IT infrastructure to India's mid-cap IT firm NIIT Technologies for an estimated $35-$40 million.

The official partner for rail for Olympics 2012, Eurostar, also works with Mumbai's Patni Computers since 2004. Former Patni EVP Deepak Khosla had moved to NIIT Technologies, as it Global sales head, and insiders say more such Patni clients may be in the pipeline for NIIT Technologies.

According to industry sources, another European client is expected to sign a contract worth $50 million with NIIT Technologies this month. NIIT Tech's strength in the travel space also helped it secure the deal.

About 30 airlines such as British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Emirates and rail networks such as German Rail, count NIIT Tech as its IT vendor. Remote IT Infrastructure management is a space dominated by top tier Indian IT firms such as HCL and Wipro, but mid-cap firms such as NIIT Tech have also started making inroads.