US investment house Fidelity has put the IT support arm of its captive Indian back office business on the market, the Economic Times reports, citing two anonymous sources close to the sale process.
The IT unit employs 2000 staff in Chennai and Bangalore and comprises approximately 70% of Fidelity Research & Management Company (FMR) India employees. The sale is understood to exclude the remaining 30% of staff working in business analytics, BPO and implementations.
A Fidelity spokesperson says: "As part of our global business transformation strategy, we are exploring options to optimise our technology delivery model, including the one in our captive unit in India. We are evaluating sourcing options with leading global technology service providers that will help us maximise the value we can offer to our key stakeholders, including employees in the long term.
The winning bidder for the business will be rewarded with a multi-year outsourcing contract from Fidelity, says the Economic Times. Potential suitors include Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, IBM and Accenture.
Fidelity's move to offload its Indian support operations follows similar recent initiatives by other big financial firms including Citi and Aviva.