The Hindu Business Line : Intelenet gets aggressive on growth plans

Growth plans
The company plans to acquire one or two firms in India to ramp up and double the headcount of domestic operations to around 10,000 this year.
In a bid to establish onshore presence, it is looking at acquisitions in the US and UK.
May tie up with a Chinese vendor to cater to the Asia Pacific market.

Bangalore , March 31

Intelenet, a BPO firm jointly owned by HDFC and Barclays, has charted an aggressive growth strategy for its domestic and global operations.

The company proposes to carry out multiple acquisitions in India, the US and the UK over the next six to nine months, while striking alliances with global IT and BPO firms simultaneously, said Mr Susir Kumar M., Chief Executive Officer, Intelenet Global Services Pvt Ltd.

Hiking headcount

"We plan to acquire one or two firms in India to ramp up and double the headcount of our domestic operations to around 10,000 this year," Mr Kumar said, adding the company was in initial talks with a few players.

Intelnet acquired Sparsh, the domestic BPO operations of Spanco, in an Rs 100-crore deal in November last year.

The company expects to get listed the domestic entity Intelenet BPO over three to four months from now, once the de-merger process is completed.

Intelenet BPO, through organic growth, expects to have a headcount of 20,000 by 2009 for its domestic operations, he said. It expects revenues of $12 million this year, which it plans to more than double next year.

Further, in a bid to establish onshore presence, Intelnet Global Services is looking at acquisitions in the US and UK. "We are looking at acquiring boutique firms with 750-1,000 employees in these countries," Mr Kumar said, adding the company has given the mandate to agencies to look out for potential targets.

Funding expansion

Intelenet Global, which currently has about 5,000 people, expects its investors HDFC and Barclays to fund its expansion plans and acquisitions.

The company has also tied up with Transcom, a 12,000-people BPO firm in Eastern Europe, which operates through 42 centres in 35 different languages. "This exclusive tie-up would help us to cater to the multilingual requirements," he said.

The company is also looking at a tie-up with a Chinese vendor to cater to the Asia Pacific market.

Intelenet Global also has the option to leverage the capabilities of Apsa, a bank owned by Barclays, to service customers in the UK and the US, Mr Kumar said.

The company is also looking at enhancing its skills in the consulting and the analytics space.

"We are also planning to tie-up with a global IT services firm in the BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) space to jointly bid for projects and also cross sell our offerings," he added.

Intelenet, with revenues of $60 million, offers voice-based contact centre services, finance and accounting, and transaction processing services to 55 customers in verticals such as financial services, retail, insurance, telecom, manufacturing, and travel and hospitality.