Satyam Computer bets on ICT play, teams up with Japan co

The growing lure of information and communications technology (ICT) seems to be too big for Satyam Computer Services to resist.

The IT company has joined hands with SBI Holdings (SBIH), a leading global online financial conglomerate and Japan’s largest venture capital/private equity house, to jointly launch a fund aimed at investing in ICT companies globally. SBIH currently manages over $3 billion worth of investments.

The size of the proposed fund will be $50 million with equal contribution from both. “The objective of the fund is to help leapfrog the innovation curve by investing in high growth and promising companies in the evolving ICT space,” Satyam said in a statement.

CP Gurnani, CEO, Satyam, said: “With sharp focus on the future trends, we intend to go full throttle on investing in emerging spaces such as mobility, social networking, security solutions and cloud. Investments in enterprise mobility and collaborative applications are the leading IT investment priorities for businesses in 2012, with infrastructure consolidation, virtualisation and security upgrades fit into the second tier. This path-breaking Fund, managed by SBIH’s expertise in this domain, will be an accelerator for our growth.”

Established in Japan in 1999, SBI Group’s core businesses include brokerage and investment banking, asset management, commercial banking, insurance and online settlement. The group’s strategy in developing the asset management business revolves around establishing joint operation systems with prominent local partners. Beginning with the first overseas fund established in 2005 with the Temasek Group, an investment arm of the Singapore government, SBI has expanded its footprint by partnerships with institutions like Abu Dhabi’s Invest AD and ministry of finance, Brunei Darussalam.

Kitao, CEO of SBI Holdings, said “SBIH is excited about this joint fund with Satyam, as combining the two firms’ complementary strengths will create an investment platform which will enable the fund to capture lucrative opportunities in the global ICT sector.”