US' SunGard to expand ops in India

MUMBAI: Sungard, one of the world���s leading providers of financial services and software, is expanding its India operations. The Pennsylvania, US-based company, which has been operating a captive development centre in India since 1993, has now appointed an MD for sales in India to bring in business from the fast-growing sector.

SunGard, which makes products for the financial services, education and public sector industries, was the target of the second-biggest leveraged buyout in history in 2005. It is now owned by seven private equity investors.

Atul Sareen, who has been named managing director, India sales, SunGard Financial Systems, is a former vice-president for IBM Software in India. Mr Sareen, who joined SunGard three months ago, has also worked with SAP, one of the largest vendors of business application software. SAP is SunGard���s rival in some areas and a partner in others.

���So far, the US and Europe have been our biggest markets, though in the past two years we have started scaling up in Asia Pacific,��� said Mr Sareen. About 74% of SunGard���s revenues come from the Americas and 24% from Europe. Asia Pacific accounted for only 2% of its $5.6 billion revenues in 2008.

Although it is now a privately owned firm, the company discloses its financials because it has US debt, said Andrew Bateman, COO, Asia Pacific. Despite the pressure on PE players, none of its investors have plans to sell their holdings in the firm, Mr Bateman added. Large PE investors, such as Silverlake, KKR and Blackstone, have stake in SunGard.