Aegis buys Sallie Mae's call centre in Texas

This is Aegis’ 10th US centre; aims to grow aggressively there.

Aegis, the business process outsourcing (BPO) provider and part of the Essar Group, signed an agreement to acquire US-based Sallie Mae’s customer service centre in Texas. The company did not disclose the payment details. This agreement is effective from June 4.

As part of the deal, Aegis also entered into a multi-year, multi-million dollar deal with Sallie Mae, an education finance services’ provider. Sallie Mae is to transfer 350 employees to Aegis, taking the latter’s US headcount to 4,350.

For Aegis, this is the second carve-out acquisition. In 2008, the company had acquired Internet firm AOL’s India captive unit. It is eyeing more such acquisitions in the US.

“This agreement enables Aegis to expand its service offerings with highly skilled customer service professionals. Aegis will leverage Sallie Mae’s expertise in quality and performance improvement and integrate the Killeen centre into our global delivery platform,” said Aparup Sengupta, Managing Director and Global CEO of Aegis.

With this acquisition, Aegis gets assets spread across 35 acres. While the Texas centre has about 350 employees, it has the capacity to scale up to 1,500.

“Aegis is committed to aggressively growing its business in the US. Our new facility in Killeen, Texas, marks Aegis’ 10th centre in the US, and we look forward to continuing to grow our capabilities in North America,” said Sandip Sen, President (Americas) and Global Chief Marketing Officer.

As reported earlier by Business Standard, Aegis had put its listing plans on hold, after it identified three targets for acquisition. It is also in talks with Avaya Inc to acquire Avaya GlobalConnect, in which it has 59.13 per cent stake.

For Sallie Mae, this sale is part of its restructuring plan. The company wished to shut its centres in Texas and Panama, as it planned to trim 1,200 jobs this year. While Aegis has acquired its Texas centre, the Panama centre is likely to be closed. The Texas call centre is one of the city's largest civilian employers.