IKYA: IKYA buys 49% of MFX, to enter IT solutions space

Thomas Cook's subsidiary IKYA Group announced on Tuesday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 49 per cent stake in MFXchange Holdings (MFX).The acquisition will lead to formation of global technology services group marking IKYA's entry into IT services and solutions space in the North American market, a company statement said. The amount of the deal was not disclosed.Based out of Morristown, New Jersey (USA), MFX provides hosted IT applications and outsourcing solutions for the US commercial property and casualty insurance industry. It is wholly owned by Fairfax Financial Holdings.On the other hand, IKYA operates in the asset management, IT and HR services domains. Headquartered in Bangalore, it employs around 80,000 people and operates in 27 cities across India, North America, West Asia and S-E Asia. The group has grown through a series of acquisitions in the past seven years and has Rs 2,200 crore as revenue.As part of the transaction to buy stake in MFX, Vikram Gulati has been appointed president of GTS Group of IKYA and chief executive officer of MFX. Gulati was the founding CEO and managing director of Happiest Minds. Before that he was president and CEO of Intelligroup Inc and headed the enterprise applications solutions business at Wipro.In September, IKYA announced that it would acquire Brainhunter (Zylog Systems, Canada), which operates in the HR space relating to IT engineering and employs around 700 people. Brainhunter had revenue of about $80 million.