FREMONT, Calif. and BANGALORE, India, March 26, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- iGATE, the first integrated Technology and Operations (iTOPS) company providing "Business Outcomes" based solutions, today announced Mr. Sujit Sircar, Chief Financial Officer, iGATE, has won the esteemed IMA India's The Ninth India CFO Award for the year 2013 in the 'Excellence in Mergers & Acquisitions' category. The India CFO Awards, instituted by IMA India, recognize excellence in the finance function. These awards have become the gold standard for excellence in various dimensions of the function and remain the most coveted in the growing legion of awards.
A photo accompanying this release is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=17793
The selection process for the prestigious award is carried through the nominations and rigorous assessment by a completely independent and authoritative panel of juries comprising of eminent personalities such as Dr. Pronab Sen, Chief Statistician of India, Government of India, Prof. Jayanth R. Varma, Dean, IIM Ahmedabad, Mr. Homi R. Khusrokhan, Advisor, Tata Sons Ltd. and Mr. Arun Bewoor, Independent consultant under the Chairmanship of Mr. Ranjit Shahani, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Novartis India. This year, the jury selected the winners from among 500 overall entries, the most in the Award's nine year history.
Ms. Radha Ahluwalia, Managing Director, IMA India, said, "The Jury of The Ninth India CFO Awards commended the lead role played by Sujit Sircar, EVP & CFO, iGATE, in successfully acquiring Patni Computer Systems. As a result of this successful acquisition, the Gross Margin and EBITDA of the combined entity shot up by 40 percent and 25 percent respectively, making iGATE the seventh largest software exporter in India. We congratulate Mr. Sircar for his commendable contribution to iGATE and are delighted to adjudge him the winner of 'Excellence in M & A' award not least for his strategy to ensure capital to acquire an organisation three times larger, but also because of the far-sighted approach to recognise and enable successful post acquisition integration. These led to a highly effective top team and to substantive cost savings realised within three quarters of the integration itself."
Accepting the award, Mr. Sujit Sircar, Chief Financial Officer, iGATE said, "I believe this particular category of Mergers and Acquisitions, is about the evolution of a CFO's role. When I was entrusted with the responsibility of steering the Patni acquisition, I was dealing with several financial and risk-mitigating levers. This M&A experience has been a big evolution for me. When we do a transaction we generally don't think about awards, but when you get it, it's a great feeling."
iGATE's acquisition of Patni Computer Systems Ltd. was the most complex deal in the Indian IT industry. The size of the deal was US$ 1.22 billion, which made it the second largest deal in the Indian IT space. The deal was interesting as Patni was two and half times bigger than iGATE and iGATE had taken a debt of around US$ 700 million to finance it. The deal overcame several challenges, the major ones being the location where the funds were to be raised, dealing with debt in the balance sheet considering the general perception that IT companies are debt-free and to balance the structure of the deal between the cost of funding and the ability to service the debt over the period of the repayment. Mr. Sujit Sircar was instrumental in structuring the deal and bringing the deal to a finite closure in the first phase of the acquisition and strategising the financial integration between the two companies in the second phase.
The award ceremony was held on March 22, 2013, at The Trident, Nariman Point, Mumbai. The awards were presented by Mr. Ranjit Shahani in the presence of distinguished gathering of business leaders such as Mr. A.K. Singhal, Director (Finance), NTPC, Mr. Nikhil Madgavkar, CFO, Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetables Pvt. Ltd., Mr. S. Giridhar, CFO, Wockhardt Ltd., Mr. V. Ravi, CFO, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd. and several others from leading Indian organizations.
IMA India instituted The India CFO Awards in 2001 to complete its suite of offerings for the Finance community. Some of the previous winners are Mr. Ravi Sud, CFO, Hero MotoCorp, Mr. S. Mahalingam, Executive Director (Finance), TCS, Mr. Adesh Gupta, Group CFO, Aditya Birla Group and Mr. Koushik Chatterjee, CFO, Tata Steel.
About iGATE
iGATE Corporation is the first integrated technology and operations (iTOPS) company providing full-spectrum consulting, technology and business process outsourcing, and product and engineering solutions on a Business Outcomes -based model. Armed with over three decades of IT Services experience and powered by the iTOPS platform, iGATE's multi-location global organization has a talent pool of more than 27,500 employees and consistently delivers effective solutions to over 300 companies including Fortune 1000 clients spanning verticals such as: banking and financial services; insurance and healthcare; life sciences; manufacturing, retail, distribution and logistics; media, entertainment, leisure and travel; energy and utilities; public sector; and independent software vendors. Please visit www.igate.com for more information.
iGATE Corporation is listed on NASDAQ under the symbol "IGTE."
The iGATE Corporation logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=5150
The photo is also available at Newscom, www.newscom.com, and via AP PhotoExpress.
