US bank Morgan Stanley has moved to sell off its Indian back office operations, with Infosys and Wipro potential buyers, according to the Economic Times.
Citing three sources, the paper says Morgan Stanley is exploring a partial or entire sale of the unit, which employees around 2000 people working in IT development and finance and accounting related work.
The potential value of a deal for the entire unit would be between $150 million and $200 million, says the paper, although any price would be dependent on the amount of business Morgan Stanley would be willing to commit to a buyer.
Alternatively, the bank may sell only its knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) operations, which employees 500 people and involves equity research, complex financial modelling and portfolio analysis. This would command a price of around $50 million.
Last year Citi sold its Indian back office division to Tata Consultancy Services in a deal worth around $505 million. The bank followed this up in January with the sale of its Indian IT outsourcing arm Citi Technology Services to Wipro for $127 million.
Morgan Stanley may sell Indian back-office ops - Economic Times