NEW YORK - CITIGROUP announced on Wednesday that it has completed the sale of India-based back-office unit Citigroup Global Services Ltd to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for US$512 million (S$734 million).

Citigroup said that in addition to the all-cash sale, TCS, a leading Indian information technology company, will provide infrastructure support, help desk and other outsourcing services to Citigroup for 9.5 years.

'The transaction is expected to help reduce operating expenses related to business processing and will allow Citi to focus on its core financial services competencies,' Citigroup said in a statement.

Citigroup Global Services employs 12,000 people, all of whom are based in India.

Citigroup has been hit hard by the global financial crisis and the US government stepped to guarantee more than US$300 billion in potential losses and pump another US$20 billion into the company.

The embattled US banking giant announced on Dec 23 it had sold its Indian information technology subsidiary, Mumbai- and Chennai-based Citi Technology Services Ltd, to India's Wipro Technologies for US$127 million. -- AFP