Blackstone-backed Intelenet Global Services eyes $1-bn revenue by 2020

Plans to double business through acquisitions and deals from Blackstone portfolio companies

Business process outsourcing (BPO) firm Intelenet Global Services aims to double its revenues to $1 billion by 2020 through acquisitions in digital technologies and on the back of deals from Blackstone portfolio companies.

After it saw an improvement in valuation, back-office service provider Intelenet, backed by private equity investor Blackstone, has renewed its interest in driving growth through acquisitions.

Blackstone had re-purchased India-based BPO operations of the UK's Serco Group Plc for nearly Rs 2,558 crore in 2015, after four years of selling it.

Intelenet, which primarily caters to banking and financial services, travel, and healthcare segments, generates nearly 70 per cent of its revenues from outside India.

The $430 million (nearly Rs 2860 crore) BPO company said it has a better deal pipeline for the existing services for the next couple of years and beyond.

"The revenue aspiration that we have is a combination of organic and inorganic play...Our inorganic strategy has always been about buying companies which can build capabilities and in that process, we will also add revenues, management teams. We will push for inorganic growth now that the valuation is getting to realistic numbers," said Susir Kumar, Executive Chairman, Intelenet Global Services.

While Intelenet expects to drive a significant part of the growth through acquiring firms in areas such as Robotics, Automation and Artificial Intelligence; over the next 2-3 years, nearly $100 million worth deals are expected to come from companies where Blackstone has invested.

"While we have already one deal from one of the Blackstone portfolio companies; there are more in the pipeline which are pretty large opportunities," added Kumar.

The BPO industry has seen a major shift from voice-based services to more technology-enabled ones in the recent past and analysts say customers of BPO companies are increasingly demanding outcome-based solutions.

The firm has also started offering IT plus BPO services to some of the clients jointly with another Blackstone-backed firm Mphasis and Kumar said there has been an increasing demand for such integrated services from some clients.