Behind acquisition, a pair of techies

Acquisition is made by a consortium of private investors-Sanjay Chakrabarty and Aparup Sengupta-who are in turn backed by PE firm CX Partners

 

Indian business process management, earlier known as business process outsourcing (BPO), continues to draw attention from private equity players.

The latest to go off the block has been Aditya Birla Nuvo's BPO arm, Aditya Birla Minacs.

The acquisition is by Sanjay Chakrabarty and Aparup Sengupta, backed by private equity (PE) firm CX Partners founded by Ajay Relan.

Singapore-based Capital Partners’ founder Chakrabarty and Sengupta have strong connect with the tech sector and have strong entrepreneurial backgrounds.

"Capital Partners will functions like a consortium, where we get capital and networking. We have not raised any funds, but will be investing in our personal capacities and also get like-minded partners along, like in this case we got CX Partners on board. We will continue to look at assets across the globe, though south-Asia will be the sweet spot as the activity is more here. We will also look at the US for technology acquisitions," Sengupta told Business Standard.

Before starting Capital Partners, Sengupta was heading the BPO operations of Essar Group's Aegis. He was responsible for taking the company to become a $1-billion firm. After quitting Aegis, Sengupta set up analytic solutions and services company Ananto. Before Aegis, Sengupta a graduate from Bengal Engineering and Science University, was the CEO of GTL and also co-founded BPO firm 24/7 Customer.

Chakrabarty, an alumnus of Tepper School of Business at Carneige Mellon, was the founder and chief executive of MobiApps. The company was acquired by Digi International in 2005 for $3.5 million. He is also the president and managing director of Columbia Capital India Advisors. Last year, Chakrabarty had acquired a minority stake in Chennai-based CSS Corp. by co-investing with Partners Group for $270 million.

Sengupta did not divulge the details of stakeholding between them and CX Partners in Minacs. "We would like to wait till the transaction is over. It will take 60-90 days." Capital Partners' strategy is to create a select portfolio of firms that will cater to segments such as BPO, analytics, big data, and e-commerce.

"I personally think there is more to come in the IT/BPO space. The BPO space in particular, has the ability to combine data analytics into the consumer insights it generates. Ananto will also come under Capital Partners holding companies," said Sengupta.

He added that the deal was in the works for about four months before the promoters signed on the dotted lines.

Aditya Birla Nuvo had been trying to sell its take in the BPO for sometime but the deal never took off due to valuation mismatch.

The Indian BPO sector has managed to get attention from PE players and new entrants as well. In 2012, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group acquired Mumbai-based Firstsource.

In 2013, there were five deals worth $1,132.87 million against one deal each in 2012 and 2011 worth a little over $1,122 million.

In 2012, JP Morgan's PE arm One Equity Partners took control of medical transcription BPO M*Modal (formerly CBay Systems) in a $1.1-billion deal.