Pension and payroll services company India Life Hewitt Ltd plans to acquire 7 to 8 chartered accountant firms in the country to expand its network. "These acquisitions will help us grow and expand our client base," Manish Sabharwal, managing director of the company, said.
Both Hewitt Associates, a global outsourcing company, and India Life entered into a strategic partnership early this month to become the largest provider of human resources, payroll and pension administration services in India.
Sabharwal said in the new merged entity, 27 per cent is held by View Group of Boston, 40 per cent by Hewitt Associates and 33 per cent by the promoters.
The combined entity will give outsourcing services to over 250 clients including Heinz, IBM, Motorola, Oracle, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Siemens and Star. While the asset-base will be around Rs 1,000 crore, over 2.4 lakh employees will be given service. The equity infusion into the new entity will be $ 5 million - $ 8 million.
Sabharwal said the company would now be able to capture a large share of the Asian market as there were hardly any major players in the continent. The company also plans to raise around $3 million from its second round of funding.
India Life received its first round of funding worth around $2.2 million from Boston-based investment and private equity company, View Group. "We plan to scale up our operations and set up offices in other Asian countries too," director of the company, Ashok Reddy, said.
View Group, along with New York-based investment and pension management company Center Partners, are joint venture partners in India Life.
The company uses the application service provider (ASP) model to offer on-line access to payroll, pension and other related information to both employees and employers of client organisations.
Reddy said the company helps companies streamline the process of payroll and pension administration enabling human resources management to move from the 'backroom' to 'boardroom'.
He said, "We demystify investment, administrative and regulatory complexities relating to payroll and pensions. He added that the company's self service suite works across all offerings to ensure that the services are available to customers and offers multiple access points for employees of client organisations to query the system.
The company's self service solution uses an interactive voice response system, live web chat, automated e-mail and a call centre to serve the client.
Reddy said both employers and the employees of client organisations can privately access information regarding payroll and pension status.
The company has also tied up with Garben InterCapital IL Ltd, one of country's integrated fixed income and foreign exchange broker.
