Infy completes acquisition of Lodestone

Infosys Ltd, India’s second largest information technology services company, has completed the acquisition of Lodestone Holding, a Switzerland-based management consulting firm, which it had announced to acquire last month.

Post the acquisition, Infosys intends to retain the brand identity of Lodestone for about a year, according to a senior company official. For the time being, it would operate as a subsidiary of the Indian company in Europe. “In the first year, we want to leverage their brand as well. The new entity will be called Infosys Lodestone. But after some time, we will drop the Lodestone tag and it will be completely integrated with Infosys,” B G Srinivas, board member and head of Europe, Infosys, told Business Standard in a recent interview. As far as clients are concerned, “we need to be seamless as one Infosys”, he added.

The acquisition will strengthen Infosys’ management consulting capabilities adding more than 700 experienced consultants and 200 clients in areas such as manufacturing, automotive and life sciences industries.

Srinivas said the immediate priority before Infosys Lodestone would be to explore new avenues in continental Europe where Lodestone already had established its footprint. “Very soon, we will formulate a joint plan to address continental Europe taking our combined capabilities,” added Srinivas.

In September, Infosys had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Lodestone Holding for a consideration of Swiss Franc 330 million (about $345 million or Rs 1,930 crore) in an all-cash deal.

The amount considered for the acquisition is about 1.3 times the revenues Loadstone was expected to garner in calendar year 2012.