EDS in talks to buy Citi stake in Polaris

The $20.7-billion EDS is in discussions with Citigroup to buy its entire 43.62 per cent stake in Rs 787 crore Polaris Software Lab, a Chenna...

The $20.7-billion EDS is in discussions with Citigroup to buy its entire 43.62 per cent stake in Rs 787 crore Polaris Software Lab, a Chennai-based financial software services and products company.

If the deal goes through, this would be Citi’s second exit from a firm after it recently cashed out of Mumbai-based software products company i-Flex in nearly $1 billion deal.

Though both Polaris and EDS officials declined to comment, an investment banker from Singapore confirmed, ‘‘EDS is in talks with Polaris to buy-out Citi’s stake in the company. EDS is very serious about scaling up its India offshoring facility and is open to inorganic route to grow.’’

Polaris Chairman Arun Jain was unavailable for comment.

Story continues below this ad

Maintaining that Polaris did not hold any talks with EDS, a company spokesperson said, ‘‘We have invested heavily in our banking product suite,‘intellect’ and our product roadmap has attained a level of maturity. Our focus is on strengthening our product portfolio and we are not looking at aligning with large MNCs.’’

If the deal goes through, EDS will have to make an open offer for 20 per cent of the floating stock, which could swell its holding to well over majority stake. Jain owns 22.05 per cent of the company.

2 suspects in Louvre heist case arrested by French police: report

World41 min ago

French police have arrested two suspects in the Louvre jewel heist, one at the airport and the other in a Paris suburb. They are currently being questioned by authorities. Paris police have not yet commented on the situation.

View all shorts

Live Blog

PHOTOS