Aegis to acquire AOL's India call centre operations

New Delhi, 31 March 2008: Aegis BPO Services, an Essar Group company, today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire AOL's call centre operations in Bangalore, India. Under the terms of this agreement, Aegis will provide customer service and technical support to AOL customers. The acquisition, which is expected to close at the end of April 2008, enables Aegis to enhance its voice and non-voice offerings in the technology support space. Upon completion of the transaction, employees of AOL's call centre operation in Bangalore will become employees of Aegis.

This is the eighth acquisition in the last two years by Aegis. The Company has successfully integrated and grown a diverse portfolio of practices across clients, segments and continents.

Commenting on the partnership, Aparup Sengupta Managing Director and CEO Aegis said, "This is a very defining and historic moment for Aegis that catapults us to a new level of competence, especially in the Tech support area covering both voice and non-voice processes. Aegis can now demonstrate its offshore Customer Experience Management services for a very well respected and renowned American household brand. Additionally this will enable Aegis to extend its horizontal services in similar areas for a new set of Clients. This was one of the finest sites for AOL worldwide and we are indeed very proud to welcome a team that built a legacy of superior customer life cycle management practices".

"This agreement is in alignment with our focus as a company on providing Web users around the world engaging, relevant, free and ad-supported content and services," said Maneesh Dhir, Executive Vice President, AOL International. "At the same time, the Centre has proven operational and people resources who will continue to serve AOL's paying customers. AOL will continue to have a significant presence in India -- where our International headquarters are located -- and will continue to grow the AOL India portal business and strengthen its local operations."

About Aegis

Aegis is today one of India's fastest growing BPO companies with annual revenues of over US$ 200 million. It is a part of the Essar Group which is one of India's largest conglomerates in terms of enterprise value. Aegis services some of the world's largest corporations such as American Express, AT&T, Humana , Western Union, Vodafone and a host of other blue chip companies through its 25 delivery facilities in the US and India. Aegis operates over 12,000 seats and employs over 19,000 people globally. It has been recognized as being among the 12 largest offshore BPO companies in India and among the top 2 in the domestic sector.

Aegis, which was ranked among India's premier BPO companies by a Dataquest and NASSCOM survey earlier this year, employs more than 19,000 people across 23 centres worldwide. It serves some of India's leading companies in the telecom, retail, banking and insurance sectors, as well as Fortune 500 clients in the USA.

About Essar

Essar Global Limited is a diversified group straddling the manufacturing and service sectors of Steel, Energy, Power, Communications, Shipping & Logistics, and Construction. Through its six holding companies, Essar Global has an estimated enterprise value of over USD 50 billion and employs 30,000 people worldwide.

With a firm foothold in India, Essar Global is focused on global expansion with projects and investments in Canada, USA, Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean and South East Asia. Visit website www.essar.com

About AOL

AOL® is a global Web services company that operates some of the most popular Web destinations, offers a comprehensive suite of free software and services, runs one of the largest Internet access businesses in the U.S., and provides a full set of advertising solutions. A majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., AOL LLC and its subsidiaries have operations in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. Learn more at AOL.com.