Bangalore, Nov. 8 (PTI): Tata Consultancy Services has acquired Comicrom, a leading business process outsourcing firm in Chile, for $23 million in an all-cash deal augmenting its presence in the global financial services and pension industry.

As part of the transaction by which TCS bought 100 per cent equity in Comicrom, TCS has also bought out the company’s 49 per cent stake in its infotech services joint venture in Chile, in which TCS held a balance of 51 per cent.

A privately-held company with 1,257 employees, Comicrom is the market leader in the banking and pensions BPO business in Chile and provides services to banks, insurance companies, pension funds, government bodies and other large corporations in the Latin American country, according to TCS.

Comicrom had revenues of $35.5 million in 2004-05 and operating margins of 14 per cent, TCS said.

At a press conference here, TCS managing director S. Ramadorai said, “this acquisition is a further step in realising TCS’s strategy of acquiring leadership in platform-based BPO for the banking domain. It also expands TCS’s capability in terms of becoming a full services player.”

TCS’s global head of sales and operations N. Chandrasekaran said TCS expects revenues of $30 million from its Latin American operations in the current financial year, and is eyeing $100 million in 2006-07.

Chandrasekaran said 1,600 people would be recruited in Brazil within two years. Ramadorai said TCS is looking to scale up its headcount in Latin America to 4,500 to 5,000 in a couple of years.

Ramadorai said bi-lingual (Spanish and English) competencies of the workforce of Comicrom (now TCS employees) not only give TCS “enormous leverage” to address the Latin American market but also provides it a cross-selling opportunity ? accessing through BPO clients for its infotech services and banking products ? as also tap companies in Spain and Spanish-speaking regions elsewhere.

According to Chandrasekaran, Latin America’s IT market size is pegged at $28 billion.