Thomson Reuters eyes Indian market for non-news businesses

Plans to double the size of its Global Growth & Operations unit by 2015

Global media and data services major Thomson Reuters is looking at an aggressive expansion plan in India for its data automation technology and information solutions offerings in financial, legal, tax and automation and intellectual property segments.

The group is targeting the Indian and other markets for these businesses through its Global Growth & Operations (GGO) unit, headed by Shanker Ramamurthy as its President.

A chartered accountant by profession, Ramamurthy told PTI in an interview here that his target is to double the size of GGO business by 2015 and this objective would be achieved by both organic growth and inorganic investments.

"There are broadly professionals in four areas that we cater to -- financial services, legal, tax and auditing and lastly science and intellectual property," he said.

The financial professionals, which include traders, investors, forex dealers etc, are one of the biggest areas of business for the company, while it is looking to expand its scale in other segments in India.

According to Ramamurthy, the group is looking at an idea where the 10,000 employees in India, who are supporting its global operations, should help grow its India business. A similar model would be adopted in some other countries also, including China.

"We have pretty ambitious plans about what we want to do at GGO. If you look at the first three quarters of the last year, we grew by over 18%... My ambition is to double the size of GGO business by 2015 and that would come through a combination of organic growth as well as inorganic investments that we will be making," he added.

Ramamurthy said that Reuters has been there in India for over 100 years, but it has been mostly in the news and financial information segment.

"One of the things that is incumbent on us is making sure that our brand is appropriately positioned in a market like India. For that, we plan to bring global capabilities to our local operations and combine a strong global brand with strong local capabilities," he said.

"Some of the investments we have made in India and a few other countries have been inorganic in nature and the level of success going further would also depend on what kind of market share and revenue we are able to achieve, either through organic or inorganic routes," he added.