Firstsource, Sri Lanka's Dialog Axiatato to form JV

BPO company Firstsource Solutions and Sri Lanka's telecom service provider company Dialog Axiata today announced the formation of a joint venture company in the island nation.

Firstsource will investing in and acquiring 76% share of Dialog Business Services, the recently formed Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) venture of the Dialog Axiata Group.

The JV company will be be known as Firstsource-Dialog Solutions.

"Given our strong footprint in the Indian market, this is a strategic decision to venture into the sub-continent to address the growing requirement for customer relationship management," said Matthew Vallance, CEO and managing director, Firstsource Solutions in a statement.

Firstsource employs over 26,000 BPO professionals globally, and has operations and corporate presence in the United States of America, United Kingdom, India, Australia and the Philippines.

Through its Sri Lankan venture, Firstsource will seek to deliver innovative and value-added business process management solutions to Sri Lankan clients from across multiple sectors, the statement said.

"With the entry of Firstsource as the major investor in this company and the infusion of global best practice in BPO operations, I am confident that Firstsource-Dialog Solutions will be a fore-runner in Sri Lanka's ITES and BPO space," said Hans Wijayasurya, Group CEO, Dialog Axiata PLC.

Dialog is the first telecom service provider in South Asia to start 3G  services commercially. The company has subscriber base in excess of 6.7 million in Sri lanka.