India's Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has acquired Comicrom, a Chile-based provider of business process outsourcing (BPO) services, for US$23m in cash.
Privately held Comicrom has 1257 employees and provides BPO services to banks, insurance companies, pension funds, government bodies and other large corporations.
TCS says the company currently holds a 57% market share of the cheque processing business in Chile and provides outsourced services to more than 70% of the banks operating in the country. The firm had full-year revenues of US$35.5m in 2005.
As part of the agreement, TCS has also bought out Comicrom's 49% stake in a joint IT services venture set up by the two firms in Chile.
TCS says the acquisition strengthens its presence in the Latin American BPO market and increases its regional staff to over 2000 and its client base to over 100.
S Ramadorai, CEO and MD of TCS, says: "This acquisition is a further step in realising TCS' strategy of acquiring leadership in platform-based BPO for the banking and insurance domain. It also expands TCS' capability in terms of becoming a full services player."
Last month TCS acquired Australia's Financial Network Services (FNS), a provider of core banking technology, for US$26 million.