In a deal that underlines the declining valuations of Indian business processing outsourcing companies, Essar group has sold its BPO arm Aegis to Capital Square Partners (CSP). Though the companies did not disclose the deal size, industry estimates peg it at close to $300 million.

In 2012, Essar was in discussions to sell Aegis for as much as $1 billion but did not go through with the deal.

Subsequently, the company was broken up, and in 2014, Aegis USA Inc (comprising Aegis’ operations in the US, the Philippines and Costa Rica) was sold to Teleperformance for $610 million. After Monday’s deal, Essar has now made close to 1$ billion from Aegis, five years after the initial discussion began.

The fresh funds will be used by Essar to retire part of its ₹75,000 crore debt. The deal marks Essar Global’s complete exit from the BPO business.

Essar entered the BPO business in 2004 with the acquisition of the US-based Aegis Communications Group, with 2,000 employees.

“While Essar was a great sponsor, we were looking at the next phase of growth. Capital Square Partners is providing us with 3Cs — capital to grow and acquire new businesses, capital to acquire new capabilities — particularly in the areas of analytics — and contacts, which is networking and partnerships,” Sandip Sen, Managing Director, Aegis, told BusinessLine .

Currently, Aegis has revenue of around $400 million, and employs more than 40,000 people across 47 centres in 10 countries.

With fresh equity, Aegis is planning to re-enter two geographies it lost a presence in after the sale of Aegis USA — the Philippines and the US.

Sen said the deal would not include any changes in the management structure and that the company would augment its hiring plans.

“Before the deal happened we expected to add 6,000-8,000 employees this year. I think those numbers will go far higher,” he said.

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