TCS to acquire GE stake in Saudi Arabia joint venture

Tata Consultancy Services on Tuesday said it is set to acquire General Electric’s (GE) stake in a joint venture for a facility in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The share swap has been pinned at a transactional value of $12,471, as per the Mumbai headquartered IT services firm’s filing to the stock exchanges.

TCS had entered into a partnership with Boston headquartered GE in September 2013 to create an all-women business process services centre in Riyadh. The holding company, Saudi Desert Rose Holding, was incorporated in November 2013 as a wholly owned subsidiary of General Electric International (Benelux), solely for the purpose of holding shares of TCS Saudi Arabia.

Currently, the holding company owns 24% of the share capital in TCS Saudi Arabia, and the balance 76% is held by Tata Consultancy Services Netherlands. 

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The latest deal proposes to consolidate TCS Netherlands’ holding in TCS Saudi Arabia by acquiring 100% of the issued and outstanding share capital of Saudi Desert Rose Holding from its parent organization General Electric.

Over the past seven years, the centre has expanded from 20 to about 1,000 women employees, TCS said in the statement.

Post completion of the deal, TCS said it will assume full responsibility of the centre to secure its viability in the longer term, and to allow it to continue to serve as a source of opportunity and skills development for women in the country.

Last week, the country’s largest software services exporter reported a 7.2% growth in its latest quarterly profit, deriving its strongest growth in nine years. Revenue rose 5.4% to Rs 42,015 crore.