Mumbai, May 20: In what could be one of the biggest deals in the domestic infotech space, Tech Mahindra is partnering a large global player for a contract worth $1.5 billion.

Though there has not been any official announcement, sources said the contract was awarded by BT, and Tech Mahindra’s consortium partner was Accenture.

According to market sources, the deal could be bigger than the $1.2-billion deal clinched by Tata Consultancy Services for 10 years with the Netherlands-based Nielsen Company last year.

Initial reports had pegged Tech Mahindra’s deal size at $800 million. Sources, however, revealed that the actual size could be considerably higher. “All we can say is that this deal could be among the top 10 in the IT space till now,” a Tech Mahindra official said, while refusing to state the value of the contract. The market, however, puts the deal size at close to $1.5 billion.

Tech Mahindra, which declared its fourth quarters results today, confirmed that it had paid an exclusivity fee of $110 million to a customer whose identity it did not reveal. Sources, however, said this amount was paid to BT with whom it had entered into a 90-day exclusive negotiation period.

“The company incurred an exceptional charge of $109.9 million towards an exclusivity payment to a customer for a long-term strategic transformation contract,” the company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The exclusivity payment had its impact on quarterly numbers as the company reported a Rs 221.4-crore net loss during the fourth quarter. Without this exceptional charge, the net profit for the quarter would have been Rs 219 crore, an 11.6 per cent growth year-on-year.