Luxoft's financial services arm Excelian buys derivIT and Unafortis
Excelian, an international financial services IT consultancy, has bolstered its product offerings across the globe with the acquisitions of derivIT and Unafortis. The buyers hope that Singapore based derivIT will provide them with a route into Asia’s expanding digital consulting market, while Switzerland based Unafortis is geared toward Excelian’s competing for complex end-to-end transformational engagements.
Luxoft is an international professional services firm specialising in custom software development company with more than 12,800 employees, 42 offices in 21 countries in North America, Mexico, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, and South Africa. As it continues a period of global expansion, Excelian, Luxoft’s Financial Services division, has confirmed the purchase of firms in Switzerland and Singapore.
derivIT acquisition
In the second quarter the firm acquired derivIT, a Singapore-based financial services-focused technology consulting company to the Capital Markets industry. derivIT, founded in 2007, provides a blend of technology expertise, industry and domain understanding and knowledge of leading platforms, such as Murex. Being a Global Alliance partner to Murex has allowed derivIT to offer a complete range of services on Murex’s MX.3 and MxG2000 platforms covering system implementations, upgrades, support, development, risk consulting, and managed testing.
The acquisition further strengthened Luxoft’s Asia-Pacific (APAC) presence, and added a number of delivery centres, which are expected to enhance the scalability of Luxoft’s current distributed delivery centre ecosystem into additional locations, such as Bangalore, India; Dubai, UAE; and Tianjin, China. The acquisition also expanded Luxoft’s existing capabilities in Singapore.
Dmitry Loschinin, President and CEO of Luxoft, said, “Completion of the derivIT transaction reinforces a strong foundation on which our company is building its presence and the delivery platform in the APAC. We are very pleased to welcome derivIT and start realising expected significant synergies in servicing current high-potential clients in the Asia Pacific region, anchoring new business opportunities in financial, automotive, telecom and other sectors, as well as taking advantage of the immediate cross-selling opportunities we see at this time.”
The global financial services industry is increasingly looking to technology for solutions to cost-cutting and security provision when out-foxing innovative new market players. Increased regulatory pressure and digital disruption are in addition putting growing pressure on banks. As a result, institutions are simplifying their operations by consolidating their IT platforms and implementing standard packaged solutions to boost profitability, with Excelian and Luxoft one of the trusted players in the landscape.
Excelian’s Global Head, Roman Trakhtenberg, added, “We are excited to join forces with derivIT and continue to strengthen our foothold in Asia Pacific. The region enjoys ample demand for packaged software to streamline operations and generate operational cost savings for continued investments into innovation and digital transformation. Furthermore, the expansion of our sophisticated engineering workforce, which delivers premium consulting and digital-related services from India, Vietnam, and Malaysia, is expected to significantly improve our ability to effectively cater to large enterprises located in Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, China, and the Middle East.”
Unafortis acquisition
Building on the bolt-on, Excelian last month also confirmed the purchase of Swiss Avaloq service providers Unafortis. Avaloq is a Swiss company which develops and provides software for core banking. The software system, Avaloq Banking Suite, is used by more than 140 banks worldwide, and as one of its lead partners, Unafortis subsequently develops its solutions and delivers its services from 37 dedicated delivery centres worldwide. It has more than 12,800 employees across 42 offices in 21 countries within five continents – North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia.
The acquisition of Unafortis is the latest example of Luxoft continuing to build practices around popular standard software packages, allowing the company to better differentiate and compete for complex end-to-end transformational engagements. It also supplements Luxoft’s pre-existing expertise in standardised software and enables Excelian/Luxoft Financial Services to target growth of their global client base within the wealth management, private, and universal banking sectors.
Taking advantage of synergies in the UK, APAC, Germany and North America, as well as the near and offshore – regionally adaptable – core capabilities of Luxoft, the firm has announced its intent to offer Avaloq-based services beyond the predominantly Swiss-client base of Unafortis. Luxoft intends to build a 150-200 engineer global practice in the coming period, working with Avaloq to serve more wealth management and private banking clients.
Commenting on the second transaction, Loschinin said, “It is a strategically important acquisition, helping us diversify financial services business outside of our core investment banking and capital markets presence. Its client base complements our own, creating mid-term cross-selling opportunities that can be scaled significantly through our delivery network. This will add another valuable premium services layer to our core application development and maintenance offering.”
In a collective statement, meanwhile, Unafortis’ founding partners said, "We are very pleased with our alliance with Luxoft. We believe that both the company’s culture and domain expertise will make for a successful acquisition. Our company has grown significantly in the last few years and still has a deep pipeline for further growth. We will help Luxoft grow its presence in wealth management and private and retail banking with the support of our highly skilled consultants.”
Excelian’s parent Luxoft is incorporated in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, has its operating headquarters office in Zug, Switzerland – the city which recently overtook London as the city with fourth most millionaires, globally – and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
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