Saksoft to buy UK firm for $17 mn

Saksoft, a provider of business intelligence and software solutions to the
BFSI segment, has bought 100% stake in UK-based Acuma Group, a provider of information value management solutions, for $17 million (around Rs 77 crore).

The deal is expected to help Saksoft grow its business in the UK and European region besides giving opportunities to add newer verticals like telecom into its offerings.

A company statement said the transction is effective October 1 and Saksoft has funded the acquisition through internal accruals and debt.

Acuma, which reported a revenue of $20 million for the year 2005, has been engaged in providing business intelligence, dara warehousing, data
integration, data quality improvement and testing services. It also offers
licencing and training services in business objects.

According to information available on Acuma's website, the company is headquartered in Reading, Berkshire, and has offices in Manchester and an offshore development centre in Hyderabad in India.

Acuma has about 12-15 customers across different verticals and employs about 80 people. Its offshore operation in Hyderabad is reported to be small with about 15 professionals.

Aditya Krishna, managing director of Saksoft, said the combined
entity's offering would be multi-vertical, multi-service with customer- facing domain experts and back-end service specialists. Acuma CEO David Ince said Acuma will have the ability to scale up the business model through use of onsite resouces and leveraging on the access to offshore resources of Saksoft.

Saksoft presently employs about 350 people, and has two offshore development centers in India (Chennai and Noida) with a total capacity of 750 seats. The company posted a revenue of Rs 50 crore for the year ending March 2006, and the combined entity is expected to have
revenue of Rs 200 crore with 500 people.

Updated at 0935 hrs: The board of directors of Saksoft yesterday approved a share purchase agreement to acquire 100% share holding in the Acuma Group, UK, for a total consideration of $17 million.

According to a release issued by Saksoft to the BSE today, Acuma is UK's largest dedicated provider of information management solutions and strategic consultancy, covering the entire gamut of business intelligence, data warehousing, data integration, data quality improvement & testing services.