Database giant Oracle has announced a £180m deal to buy
a majority interest in India's largest applications software
company, i-flex solutions.
The Indian firm produces software to support corporate and
consumer banking, investment banking, Internet banking, asset
management and investor services and has provided software and
services to 575 banks in 115 countries.
Its applications have been optimised for Oracle's technology
platform since 1997, with over 90% of i-flex customers currently
running on Oracle technology.
Oracle will acquire 41% of i-flex’s shares from venture capital
firm Citigroup and will make an offer to buy an additional 20% from
the remaining shareholders – a requirement under Indian law. The
total cost of the deal is expected to be around $316m if the full
20% is included in the offer.
Larry Ellison, Oracle’s chief executive, said, “i-flex is the
hottest software company in the banking industry, signing more new
customers than any other banking software company in each of the
last three years.
"Banking is a strategic industry for Oracle with nine out of the
top ten banks already running Oracle ERP applications. Oracle's
overall application strategy is to go beyond ERP and offer
customers richer industry-specific functionality. i-flex gets us
there in banking.”
The current i-flex management team will continue to run the
company and will align its strategy and activities with Oracle.