The tax and accounting business of the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, Thomson Reuters, is bullish on India. The adoption here of the International Financial Reporting Standards makes the moment right, says Roy M Martin Jr, president and chief executive officer (tax and accounting) of Thomson Reuters.
In an interview with K Rajani Kanth, he shares his practice's plans to tap the Indian market. Edited excerpts:
You have specific products and programmes for countries like Australia and New Zealand. What are you doing for India?
From a corporate standpoint, Thomson Reuters has a significant presence here. We have 5,000 employees, largely in Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. And, tax and accounting account for 10 per cent of that population. We are building our services capabilities and are also interested in India as a commercial opportunity. Our intent is to expand our presence into countries like India.
The company had acquired Delhi-based Indlaw Communications in the legal space 12 months earlier. Are you looking at similar acquisitions or partnering domestic companies in tax and accounting to tap into this market?
We are looking for partners in this market. From a commercial standpoint, we will be looking to sell our global products (custom taxes, excise taxes and so forth). So, you will see us deploying sales people and support and service people here to sell those products, as well as looking for partners, either acquisition targets or people who may want to be part of the organisation or partners who can help us go to market.
Acquisitions — we will be interested in that, for sure. It is very much in the exploratory stage. We sell software tools to corporations to comply with government regulations. So, that's where we will be working with partners like service providers and technology firms.
Which are the software products you plan to introduce in India? Is there any particular segment you're looking at?
Globally, the basis of our strategy over the next couple of years is to help more multinational corporations comply. India may slowly move to IFRS from April 2011. As that occurs, corporations with global presence have to comply with laws in each and every country. This makes it easier for companies to comply and also creates a global market for someone like us, which didn't exist before.
As India adopts IFRS, it enables us to deploy products which are IFRS-compatible for multinational companies that are present in this country. Once IFRS is in force, multinationals doing business in India have to comply with India's laws. Those companies are precisely a market for us. The better the Indian economy is in attracting foreign investments, that's good for us. That's why we are here. And, our software product rollouts will probably be in 2011.
Have you started selling this IFRS idea to Indian customers?
It is a global phenomenon. IFRS is controlled by the International Accounting Standards Board and countries determine whether they wish to adopt it or not.
So, we don't need to be testing it on companies here. Every public company in India would have to comply with that law. The question is, are there any products and services that would evolve because of that ... we think the answer is yes and we intend to be in the bandwagon.
About your revenues?
We don't track revenues exactly by countries. In 2009, Thomson Reuters' revenues were in excess of $13 billion, while ours is just about $1 bn.
The adoption by India of the IFRS and the increasing standardisation of accounting standards will really make the moment right.
India is in an evolution stage and there is maturity in the tax system.
All these factors work in every positive way for us to look at India as a great market to earn.
