Infosys forms JV with Hitachi, Panasonic and Pasona in Japan

India's second largest IT services firm Infosys on April 1 said it has completed the formation of its joint venture with Hitachi, Panasonic Corporation and Pasona Inc, strategically enhancing presence in Japan.

In December last year, Infosys had announced its agreement with these partners under which Infosys was to acquire 81 percent share in Hitachi Procurement Service Co, Hitachi's fully owned subsidiary. Consideration for the 81 percent stake was 2,762 million yen (approx Rs 174.58 crore).

Hitachi, Panasonic and Pasona are the minority shareholders of the entity.

HIPUS Co Ltd - the new venture - has named Shinichiro Nagagata as chief executive officer, Infosys said in a statement.

The JV will be headquartered in Japan, and more than 200 employees will be part of it on establishment.

"The joint venture, formed by complementary, iconic companies coming together, will accelerate business process transformation leveraging digital procurement platforms for the local and global needs of Japanese corporations," the statement said.

It added that Infosys will bring its global expertise in procurement processes, consulting, analytics and digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA) to the venture.

Combined with Hitachi and Panasonic's knowledge of their procurement functions and local teams, and Pasona's human capital and BPM networks in Japan, the entity will provide end-to-end, efficient and high value procurement capabilities to corporations.