India's Infosys Signs $454-Mln Deal With Danske Bank

New Delhi: Infosys (INFY.NS), India's No.2 IT services provider, signed a $454-million deal with Denmark's Danske Bank, it said on Monday, days after bigger rival Tata Consultancy Services (TCS.NS) announced a mega-contract amid a slowdown in the IT services industry.

The deal, which includes Infosys acquiring Danske Bank's IT centre in India, is for five years with an option to renew for one more year for a maximum of three times, Infosys said in a regulatory filing.

"Infosys will collaborate with Danske Bank to strengthen their core business with greater digital, cloud and data capabilities," said Infosys CEO Salil Parekh. Infosys expects the transactions to be completed before the second quarter of this financial year.

Shares of the Bengaluru-headquartered company were little changed after the deal announcement. The stock is down about 15% so far this year, compared with a little-changed Nifty IT index (.NIFTYIT).

The deal comes as Indian IT services companies face demand challenges in their key markets - the United States and Europe - where clients have cut spends amid worries about recession. Infosys in April forecast revenue growth would hit a six-year low this fiscal year on slowdown worries.

Rival TCS signed a contract worth 840 million pounds with British pension scheme Nest for an initial tenure of 10 years last week.That deal came on the heels of TCS terminating a $2-billion contract with insurance provider Transamerica, citing reasons that included a challenging macro environment.