Capita buys Prudential's Mumbai BPO unit

Capita India, the Indian arm of Capita Group, the UK’s biggest business process outsourcing (BPO) company, has acquired part of Prudential’s offshore operation (PPMS) in Mumbai.

The deal involves transfer of about 1,400 PPMS staff to Capita, taking the number of it staff in India to 3,000, around 10 per cent of the group’s total workforce.

The acquisition forms a key part of Capita’s £722-million contract to provide outsourced services to Prudential UK.

Headquartered in Mumbai, Capita has offices in Vikhroli and Thane and is now expanding its operations to Pune, making it a multi-city operator. Its new centre in Magarpatta (Pune) will house staff working on the Marsh contract. Marsh is the world’s largest insurance broker and risk advisor.

“We are continuing to strongly expand our life and pension businesses in the UK and our Indian operations will play a key role in supporting this growth. With the increased scale and enhanced expertise of the newly-merged business, Capita in India will represent a leading offshoring base to support our plans across both life and pension and a broader range of our service offerings. We expect to grow our operations and workforce in India in line with the continued growth of our business,” said Paul Pindar, chief executive officer of the Capita Group.

Prudential will retain a captive offshore service centre in Mumbai, which will continue to deliver a number of important activities for its UK business. Prudential intends to grow this as a shared services operation for the Prudential Group as a whole.

Sanjay Razdan, managing director of Capita India, said, “The new Pune office provides us with operational resilience, room for growth and access to a high quality local talent pool.”