Infosys to buy majority stake in Dutch mortgage services firm Stater for $143 mn

Indian software services and consultancy firm Infosys is set to acquire a 75% stake for Rs 986 crore or 127.5 million Euros ($143 million) in Stater NV, the mortgage service provider of Dutch bank ABN AMRO, the company said in a media statement.

ABN AMRO will continue to hold the remaining 25% stake, the statement added.

After the acquisitions of Lodestone in 2012 and Panaya in 2015, this will be the third largest deal for Infosys.

The Bengaluru-based $10-billion IT firm has also partnered with the Amsterdam-based ABN AMRO to provide digital banking services for the latter’s customers. The services include digitising the mortgage business, improving customer experience, bringing operational efficiencies apart from other digital transformation initiatives, the statement added.

According to the company, Stater is a market leader in the Benelux region (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg), operating across the mortgage and consumer lending value chain with deep capabilities in digital origination, servicing and collection. The existing management will continue to govern the company.

“This transaction strengthens our approach to offer clients digital platforms and industry-focused solutions. It brings together our complementary capabilities to enhance the value we offer to our financial services clients as well as enhancing our presence in Europe,” said Mohit Joshi, president of Infosys.

The deal will provide Infosys deep expertise in the mortgage business in Europe and a robust digital platform to drive superior customer experience for its potential clients. It added that the Bengaluru-based company will also help Stater with a digital transformation roadmap with accelerators such as dynamic workflow, application programming interface (API) layers, robotic process automation (RPA) and analytics.

“As Infosys is already active in mortgage administration services, they offer specific expertise. With the combined forces of ABN AMRO, Infosys and Stater, we will ensure a solid basis to pursue our plans for the further development of our service offering,” said Erwin Dreuning, managing director of Stater, adding that this will open up opportunities for the company to grow and service more clients.

Mortgage services is a focus area for large corporations in the financial sector, because of its importance as an asset on a bank’s balance sheet, Infosys said. The specialised knowledge and experience of Stater in the mortgage services market, combined with its global reach as well as the AI, digital transformation and automation capabilities of Infosys, can potentially create differentiated solutions for the market, it said in the statement.

“While mortgages are a key product for ABN AMRO, providing administrative mortgage services is not a core activity, and hence, we have decided to bring Infosys on board. We will keep a strategic interest of 25% and will continue to be an important client to Stater,” said Christian Bornfeld, member of the executive board of ABN AMRO.