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Deluxe acquires HCL's stake in joint venture

This is part of Deluxe's plans to strengthen its Indian operations by designating it as one of the corporation's four independent operations units worldwide.

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The joint venture would now be renamed to function as a wholly owned subsidiary of Deluxe, an integrated payment systems major, a company statement said.

The new company will continue its focus on software development, maintenance and support services and business outsourcing to leading international financial services companies and to Deluxe's businesses worldwide.

For this, it will leverage a software development centre in Madras and its technical staff of over 300 programmers.

To further strengthen its India presence, Deluxe has commenced expansion of a business-processing centre in New Delhi and construction of a second SDC operation in Madras will begin soon.

Deluxe Corporation's new business model for India entails the formation of a holding company for four, newly designated, independent operating units.

One of the major strategic initiatives undertaken through the new business model is the creation of an Efunds Corporation, a combination of Deluxe's information and payment protection businesses with its electronic transaction processing business.

In addition to Efunds Corporation, the other three independent operating units are Deluxe Paper Payment Systems, the leading check printing business in the US government services, which provides electronic benefits transfer services to state government and Deluxe's software development and business process outsourcing business, formerly HCL Deluxe.

Announcing this initiative, J A Blanchard, chairman and CEO, Deluxe Corporation, said, ''We believe that the separation of our businesses, particularly the separation of Efunds from Deluxe Paper Payment Systems, will be an important contribution to our future successes. As separate operating units, each Deluxe business will set its own strategy, allocate resources, pursue acquisitions or alliances and make marketing and management decisions in its own best interest. Our new structure acknowledges the distinctions among our businesses and is designed to support and grow these businesses as independent operating units.''

About the new, wholly owned subsidiary in India, he said ''Our joint venture has been providing important software support to several of the Efunds companies for more than a year. Our easy access to high quality programming resources has helped us speed new products to market while also lowering our costs. We expect that support to increase in size and importance as a steady stream of new products begins to emerge from the company.''

Ravi Bahl, president and CEO, HCL Deluxe, said, ''With 1998 revenues of $13 million and a customer base comprising leading global financial institutions, this business grew more than 400 per cent last year and is expected to have significant growth for the next several years. The new business model appropriates greater responsibility on Deluxe's India operations for the company's worldwide growth, as the subsidiary will now address the global marketplace in addition to the US and Indian markets.''

UNI

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