Date:10/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/10/stories/2008071056271900.htm

Business

Harita sells design unit to KPIT

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Harita TVS Technologies, a TVS Group company, has sold a substantial part of its mechanical design services business to KPIT Cummins Infosystems for an undisclosed consideration.

The deal, expected to be completed in a month or so, will see KPIT Commins take over around 100 specialised Harita TVS employees, who have core mechanical design competencies in product design and validation for automotive and industrial products and systems.

The deal will also ensure that the 20-odd clients of Harita TVS in North America, Europe and India come under the fold of KPIT Cummins.

According to P. Parthasarathy, President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Harita TVS, the company had to sell the business due to scalability issue. He felt that if the business were to be taken to the next stage of growth, it required a partner. “We weighed all options and finally decided on selling it to KPIT Commins,” he said. Hartia TVS, Mr. Parthasarathy said, would now focus on providing mechanical design solution to tech staffing services, which was also witnessing growth.

Mr. Parthasarathy said the mechanical design services team was operating mainly from Bangalore.

A small team of around 20 people were working from Chennai. While KPIT Cummins had decided to integrate the Bangalore team with its team there, it had decided to keep the Chennai operation going.