Inman

Fidelity buys 45% stake in Fortune Infotech

Fidelity National Financial today said it has acquired a 45.5 percent stake in Fortune Infotech Limited from Covansys Corp.

Jacksonville, Fla.-based Fidelity said Fortune Infotech, headquartered in Baroda, India, is a provider of offshore outsourcing services, with a specific focus on business process outsourcing. Fortune Infotech provides back-office services, such as transaction processing, claims processing and accounts-payable processing services.

“This investment in Fortune Infotech is an important step in our goal of continually improving our business process outsourcing capabilities,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer William P. Foley II.

“A cohesive back office service strategy will allow the FNF family of companies to provide more efficient title production, loan production, loan administration and lender services to our customers in the future. There are significant opportunities to differentiate the services we provide across our family of companies through an integrated BPO model,” Foley said.

Last week, Fidelity announced plans to restructure along with an earnings report detailing a first-quarter-profit drop of 76 percent from a year ago, when it recorded a large gain from selling a stake in an affiliate.

Loan production BPO opportunities include credit reporting, loan data entry and verification, underwriting, loan pricing, post-closing document work, loan processing and customer service. Loan administration opportunities include document indexing, borrower setup, late-payment collection and tax and accounting reporting. Lender services opportunities include credit reports, appraisal reviews, document verification, hazard insurance assessment, and issuance and production of title orders.

Covansys retains a 50.1 percent ownership position in Fortune Infotech. Fidelity’s majority-owned, publicly traded subsidiary, Fidelity National Information Services Inc., owns approximately 29 percent of the outstanding common stock of Covansys.