Aegis to sell US, Philippines, Costa Rica ops for $610 mn

Essar Group firm AGC Holdings will sell its BPO business in the US, the Philippines and Costa Rica to Paris-based outsourcing firm Teleperformance for USD 610 million (about Rs 3,638 crore).
AGC Holdings, a wholly owned portfolio company of Essar Global Fund has entered into a definitive agreement with Teleperformance to sell Aegis USA Inc (AUI), which has annual revenues of USD 400 million and employees over 19,000 across 16 centres in 3 countries, the company said in a statement.
It serves clients in the US market across industries like healthcare, financial services, travel and hospitality.
The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter of 2014, subject to receipt of certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Aegis will continue to retain the remainder of the BPO business globally across India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Australia, South Africa, Peru, Argentina, Saudi Arabia and UK, it added.
According to IT-BPO industry body Nasscom, Aegis is ranked as the fourth largest BPO company in India in terms of revenues after Genpact, TCS BPO and Serco.

"This transaction fits the strategic objectives of Essar Fund in the rapidly growing high quality assets and delivering value creation, in this case through a sale to a high quality strategic player in Teleperformance," Uday Gujadhur, Board Member of Essar Capital Ltd and fund manager for Essar Global Fund Limited, said.

He added the transaction would yield many synergies and benefits for Aegis' employees and customers.
"We look forward to continue to grow the Aegis portfolio in our other markets including India, Malaysia, Australia, Middle East, Europe and Latin America," he said.
Essar made a foray into the BPO business through the acquisition of Aegis Communication Group, US in 2004.
Post transaction, Aegis would have operations in 37 locations across nine countries with more than 37,000 employees. Its clients would include players from verticals like Banking and Financial Services, Insurance, Technology, Telecom, Healthcare, Travel & Hospitality, Consumer Goods, Retail, and Energy and Utilities.

"With this transaction, we will boost Teleperformance's US market share, adding USD 400 million to our annual revenue, for a total of USD 4 billion in worldwide revenue on a pro-forma basis," Teleperformance Executive Chairman Daniel Julien said.