Birla to sell BPO Minacs for Rs 1,500 cr

Minacs' sale, if successful, would mark Kumar Mangalam Birla's exit from the information technology sector

Kumar Mangalam Birla’s Aditya Birla Nuvo is in talks with a private equity consortium led by Sanjay Chakrabarty to sell its business process outsourcing (BPO) firm, Minacs, for $250 million (Rs 1,540 crore).

The deal, if successful, would mark Birla’s exit from the information technology (IT) sector. A company spokesperson said, “We do not comment on market speculation.”

Sanjay Chakrabarty had earlier founded MobiApps and later he turned into a private equity investor.

He is being backed by another investor who would together hold shares of Minacs. He could not be reached for his comments.

Nuvo houses the K M Birla group’s manufacturing businesses, financial services and IT and IT-enabled services. Minacs has tie-ups with global corporations in manufacturing, retail, telecom, banking and healthcare.

“The deal for Minacs has finally progress to the advanced stage, after being stuck because of valuation for a long time,” said an investment banker familiar with the development. “The deal is now expected to be announced in a couple of weeks,” the I-banker said.

The BPO firm employs 20,500 serving 100 clients in 35 delivery centres such as Canada, Germany, Hungary, India, Jamaica, the Philippines, the UK and the US.

Earnings
The firm provides software for customer lifecycle management, marketing, finance, accounting, procurement and IT.

The company made an operating earning before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of Rs 251 crore on a revenue of Rs 2,466 crore in 2012-13. Net profit for the period was up 80 per cent year-on-year to Rs 125 crore.