HLL announces partnership with Capgemini for Indigo

Mumbai, Sept 7 (UNI) FMCG major Hindustan Lever (HLL) has reached an agreement with Cap Gemini, the parent company of the Capgemini group, for it to take a 51 per cent stake in Unilever India's ''Indigo''.

Announcing this to the Bombay Stock Exchange, the company said that the terms of the agreement were not disclosed and the transaction is expected to be completed in October 2006.

Currently, Indigo is a fully-owned subsidiary of the company, providing BPO services to a number of Unilever companies, including HLL, around the world.

The partnership with Capgemini will bring world-class financial BPO practices to Capgemini and Unilever, both. Indigos domain knowledge and deep capabilities built in the FMCG sector coupled with Capgeminis BPO expertise will enable Indigo to leverage its strengths and offer services to customers beyond the Unilever group.

The partnership with Unilever will strongly supplement Capgeminis market, leading business process outsourcing capabilities in finance and accounting in India and support Capgeminis strategy to enhance the existing BPO global delivery network in Poland, China, India, Australia, USA and Canada.

Indigo is a provider of financial shared services and Sarbanes Oxley compliance services to the Unilever group throughout the world. It has operating centres in Bangalore and Chennai. It currently serves Unilever companies in about 45 countries in Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe and North America.

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