EuroBusiness Media (EBM): Capgemini, a global leader in Consulting, Technology and Outsourcing Services, is acquiring a 55% stake in CPM Braxis, the leading Brazilian player in the domestic IT services market. Paul Hermelin welcome, you are the CEO of Capgemini. Jose Luiz Rossi welcome, you are the CEO of CPM Braxis. David Shpilberg, welcome, you are the Vice Chairman of the Board of CPM Braxis. Let me turn to you first, Paul Hermelin, to ask you what is, in a few words, CPM Braxis and, more importantly, why did you decide to acquire a majority stake in this company?
Paul Hermelin: CPM Braxis, as you mentioned, is the biggest independent player in the world of IT services in Brazil. Brazil is the 8th IT services market in the world and Capgemini had a very small presence there. Just if I summarize the group strategy: while we have 36% of our people from growth economies and new emerging economies, they are mainly servicing Western customers. So we want to take advantage of the huge potential of these economies that have local customers and customers notably - if you think of Brazil - with global ambitions, and for that, an organic journey was too long. So we thought we could do a breakthrough in Brazil through this transaction. I stress that it is, quite unusually, a joint venture and what I like in the deal is that the CPM Braxis shareholders were not eager to ‘take the money and run’. What they wanted is a combination with a global brand that would bring assets, value and support to CPM Braxis, but to stay as shareholders with us. So I think it has a high potential in an economy that grows very fast with a very strong set of skills that we can leverage globally.
EBM: Let me turn to you, David Shpilberg, as Vice Chairman of the Board of CPM Braxis and representing the shareholders, as you do. Why did you decide to sign with Capgemini?
David Shpilberg: You know, we weren’t thinking about selling the company. We created this company to be a company with a global-standard, a company of employees, careers, and when Capgemini approached us we were hesitant at the beginning. But when we understood that Capgemini is looking for a partner to actually grow in Brazil, for a partner to create synergies between the highly entrepreneurial structures of Capgemini around the world, and would allow us to remain shareholders, it was the best answer we could have had to the objective, which is to create a solid, global-standard company that continues to grow at above market rates in Brazil and projects from Brazil.
EBM: And turning to you, Jose Luiz Rossi, as CEO of CPM Braxis, what can you tell us about what your company can bring to the table in this tie-up with Capgemini?
Jose Luiz Rossi: CPM Braxis is the largest Brazilian IT services provider with over 5500, deep skills, deep knowledge and intimacy with clients there and I think we bring that kind of expertise to really help Capgemini’s global clients in the marketplace. So this is something, we believe we could actually be part of the Capgemini family and really help them support those global clients in the marketplace.
EBM: Paul Hermelin, why do you believe that CPM Braxis is a good fit for Capgemini?
Paul Hermelin: First, we went there with a team and frankly there was a good cultural understanding. We were speaking the same language, exchanging skills, exchanging customer experience and we could see we were part of the same world. This being said, CPM Braxis will bring things to the Group, because we service global companies that need Brazilian support and we had only a very few dozen people there. The second point is that CPM Braxis has tremendous experience in banking, that’s helpful because we are building a global group in banking. And the last thing, these new Brazilian colleagues hope that they can do some kind of alternative to India, notably to help US customers with remote service in a time zone that can be more convenient than India, and that might be very interesting. It’s a little bit more expensive than Indian labour costs, but it might provide flexibility and we will probably leverage that too.
EBM: Gentlemen, thank you very much.
