TCS close to buying 2 LatinAmerica cos

BANGALORE: India's top software exporter, Tata Consultancy Services, is close to buying two firms in Latin America for about 2 billion rupees ($50 million), Business Standard daily said, citing unnamed sources.

A spokesman for Tata Consultancy declined comment on the report.

Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy, part of the salt-to-steel Tata business group, is looking at one back-office services firm and an IT services company in Latin America and it has completed due diligence of the target companies, the newspaper said.

According to the report, the company has completed due diligence of the targeted companies. The estimated value of these two firms is said to be around Rs 200 crore, with a headcount of 100 each.

In May, Tata Consultancy, whose clients include General Electric and ABN AMRO, said it had set up a software development centre in Mexico to serve local clients and provide near-shore services to US customers.

In all, TCS has set up operations in 14 countries including major centres in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, employing over 5,000 persons. Revenues from its Latin American operations touched $159 million (around Rs 650 crore) in 2006-07