Diageo and Genpact Launch Joint Shared Services Center in Colombia

BOGOTA, Colombia, Oct. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Diageo, the world's leading premium beverage company and Genpact Limited (NYSE: G), a global leader in business process management and technology services, announced today the opening of a shared services center in Bogotá, Colombia. This center both signifies Diageo's key strategy of centralizing its finance and accounting (F&A) processes in Latin America and investing in its operation in Colombia, and establishes Genpact's operations in the country.

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Under this agreement, Diageo and Genpact are engaged in a hybrid shared services center model whereby employees from both companies are working together at the same site. The center employs approximately 65 newly-trained employees at the present time, with the intention to expand it to up to 200 employees at the location by the end of 2013.  Genpact and Diageo are partnering to optimize Diageo's comprehensive F&A operations and consolidating these operations into the new center in Bogotá, which to date have been managed across multiple Latin American countries. This center will serve Diageo's large and growing Latin American businesses and is a sign of the confidence in the future and potential that Colombia represents for the company.

The inauguration of this shared services center represents a unique joint partnership between a global business services provider and a global beverage company and illustrates their commitment to and investment in the region. Both Diageo and Genpact have worked closely with the Colombian Central and local Governments, involving entities like the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, the National Taxes and Customs Office, Bogotá Mayor's Office, and business organizations such as Invest in Bogotá and Proexport to maximize public-private collaboration.

At today's press conference to announce this new center, Genpact Vice Chairman Pramod Bhasin said, "Genpact's expansion of operations into Colombia further supports our strategy of bringing our global business process management expertise to rapidly-growing economies.  The local governments and economic development organizations here have been extremely valuable partners in helping Genpact and Diageo establish this world-class shared services center."

"Genpact is excited to launch our operations in Colombia through this close partnership with Diageo," said Scott McConnell, senior vice president and business leader, Americas for Genpact. "Colombia offers a very favorable business climate for Genpact and our clients like Diageo because of its skilled workforce, a healthy and growing economy, a large number of universities with strong business programs, the presence of many different industries, and Colombia's stated commitment to increasing open and free trade practices.  We see tremendous growth opportunities for this delivery center, which will serve as a key Latin American hub for Genpact's business process management, process re-engineering, and analytics services."

"Establishing the Shared Service Center in Bogotá was ideal for Diageo given our strong existing ties and confidence in the country, the offer of talented workforce, and the open investment opportunities that we have seen for the last few years and that ratify our commitment for the long term," stated Gregorio Gutierrez, Commercial Director of Diageo. "By bringing Genpact with us to develop this shared services center model, we will be able to consolidate and improve our Latin American F&A functions with Genpact's process and operations expertise, enabling us to focus on our core business so that we can further expand in the region and more effectively serve our internal and external clients."

For the past decade, Diageo globally has been focused on driving sustainability and operating cost efficiencies, improving customer service levels, and operating process controls, with the shared services center model as a key solution. Under a separate scope of work, Genpact is also working with Diageo to help streamline and manage its F&A operations in additional emerging markets including Africa.

The shared services center is in the Fontibon section of Bogotá, located in the Bogotá Free Trade Zone in the Zona Franca business park.

About Diageo
Diageo is the world's leading premium drinks business with an outstanding collection of beverage alcohol brands across spirits, wines and beer categories. These brands include Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, JεB, Buchanan's, Windsor and Bushmills whiskies, Smirnoff, Cîroc and Ketel One vodkas, Baileys, Captain Morgan, Jose Cuervo, Tanqueray and Guinness.

Diageo is a global company, with its products sold in more than 180 countries around the world. The company is listed on both the New York Stock Exchange (DEO) and the London Stock Exchange (DGE). For more information about Diageo, its people and its brands, visit www.diageo.com. For Diageo's global resource that promotes responsible drinking through the sharing of best practice tools, information and initiatives, visit www.DRINKiQ.com.

About Genpact
Genpact Limited (NYSE: G), a global leader in business process management and technology services, leverages the power of smarter processes, smarter analytics and smarter technology to help its clients drive intelligence across their enterprise. Genpact's Smart Enterprise Processes (SEP^SM) framework, its unique science of process combined with deep domain expertise in multiple industry verticals, leads to superior business outcomes. Genpact's Smart Decision Services deliver valuable business insights to its clients through targeted analytics, reengineering expertise, and advanced risk management. Making technology more intelligent by embedding it with process and data insights, Genpact also offers a wide range of technology services. Driven by a passion for process innovation and operational excellence built on its Lean and Six Sigma DNA and the legacy of serving GE for more than 15 years, the company's 58,500+ professionals around the globe deliver services to its more than 600 clients from a network of 74 delivery centers across 20 countries supporting more than 30 languages. For more information, visit www.genpact.com. Follow Genpact on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

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