Oracle, PE firms eye stake in 3i Infotech

Indian software products and services firm 3i Infotech is reportedly under the radar of Oracle and some other private equity funds. Currently, the ICICI Group holds a little over 48% in the firm. 3i Infotech is mainly dominant in the in the financial services and enterprise resource planning (ERP) space, apart from services.

The ICICI Group is reportedly keen on reducing its stake in 3i Infotech and that it has been in talks with private equity players. US software giant Oracle is also doing the rounds of being interested in a stake in 3i Infotech.

The ICICI group has been scouting for suitable buyers since the last few months. Its stake is held through two group companies, ICICI Bank and ICICI Strategic Investments Fund. Reserve Bank of India has asked all banks to progressively reduce their stakes in non-finance group companies. The group’s stake has already come down marginally from 54% to 48% from March 2006 to September 2006.

Last year, 3i also acquired a Hyderabad-based firm, which gave it a presence in the growing anti-money laundering solutions space. Its flagship insurance product, PREMIA, also integrates with Oracle e-business suite and as recently as December 2006, it set up a centre of excellence for insurance in Chennai in partnership with Oracle. In this context, the acquisition makes strategic sense to Oracle.

3i has been delivering impressive numbers in the past few quarters. For the September quarter, it reported a profit of Rs. 23.2 crores on revenues of Rs. 149 crores. In fiscal 2006, it recorded a profit after tax of Rs. 58 crores and revenues of Rs. 424 crores. 3i was originally set up as a 100% subsidiary of the ICICI Group as ICICI Infotech. Later, the company changed its name to 3i Infotech and also went public.

Read The Economic Times article.

3i Infotech eyes companies with products in insurance

3i Infotech is looking for acquiring companies with software products in the life insurance or trade finance verticals. 3i Infotech, formerly known as ICICI Infotech, is a leading provider of software and IT solutions, including packaged applications for the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), manufacturing, and retail and distribution industries. It has already made 19 acquisitions so far, having bought, earlier this year, majority stake in Professional Access and E-Enable.

The company is also keen to acquire domestic Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firms that offer expertise cheque truncation, credit verification, soft recovery and soft collections. The company is in preliminary stages of talks with potential candidates.

For more details, read The Economic Times article.