TCS IN TALKS TO BUY DEUTSCHE BANK’S TECH SERVICES UNIT

Deutsche Bank AG is in advanced talks to sell a technology services unit to Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS), Asia’s biggest software exporter by market value, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The discussions about Bonnbased Postbank Systems AG are expected to result in a deal with the Indian company by the end of the year, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing the private information.

The pandemic is accelerating moves by global banks and financial services firms to shed their captive technology centers. TCS’s potential takeover of Postbank’s 1,400 employees in the South Asian nation will help Deutsche Bank chief executive Christian Sewing get closer to his job-cuts target.

Negotiations are ongoing and could still be delayed or fall apart, the people said. A Deutsche Bank spokeswoman declined to comment, while a representative for Tata Consultancy also didn’t comment.

TCS, which has more than 450,000 employees across the world, in 2008 paid $505 million to acquire Citigroup Inc.’s backoffice unit in what was then its biggest acquisition. Financial details of the proposed transaction with Deutsche Bank aren’t known. Shares of the unit of Tata Sons Pvt., India’s biggest conglomerate, were little changed at ₹2,658.8 as of 2:06 p.m. in Mumbai. PB Systems generated €533 million ($632 million) in revenue in 2015, according to its latest available annual report. It provides IT services to Deutsche Bank’s formerly separate retail unit Postbank. Deutsche Bank is currently merging Postbank’s IT with its own. This may render PB Systems services obsolete by the end of next year.