An Intelenet veteran, Bhupender Singh played a key role in UK-based Serco’s acquisition of Intelenet Global Services in 2011. Singh had joined Intelenet in 2007 as Head of Strategy and M&A, following the acquisition of Travelport India Operations, where he was the Chief Executive Officer.

Singh, who was also part of the founding team at ICICI OneSource (now Firstsource) and worked with McKinsey & Company and Booz Allen & Hamilton, was also instrumental in setting up of BPO operations for Serco in certain key markets. In a tete-a-tete with BusinessLine , Singh, who is now the CEO at Intelenet, sketches the benefits Blackstone brings, plans to make the company a $1-billion firm and the opportunities in the BPO space. Edited excerpts:

For the first time in its history, Blackstone has re-invested in Intelenet? What made the PE fund come back and invest in the BPO firm?

Blackstone had invested first in 2007 and exited in the first quarter of 2011, with the PE firm investing in the peak of the external environment and exiting at the bottom of the economic cycle. Despite this, Intelenet gave them almost 2.7 times returns. Hence, they actually were very happy with the investment and realised that the credibility of Intelenet’s management team was high. This was the story of 2007–11.

Later, the opportunity came when Serco announced its intention of exiting BPO business in the private sector. Actually, we did not approach Blackstone as we were not sure. This time, Blackstone came and did a due diligence and found that it’s the same management team and same set of clients. The only difference is that the business actually grew bigger. Since they made good money last time, maybe they intend to repeat the earlier success story.

Has the numerous ownership changes impacted Intelenet’s business?

Despite the numerous ownership changes, we actually have not lost any of our clients and the relationships with our clients have continued to be strong.

How dependent is Intelenet on the PE firm’s portfolio of businesses?

Blackstone had owned Intelenet from 2007-11 and during those four years we grew from roughly about $100 million of revenue to $250 million, which is 2.5 times. Yes, we got help from Blackstone, with the PE firm contributing about 25 per cent, while the rest came in from others. The same is our goal now.

We are again targeting a 2.5 times, and we want to grow from $420 million today to $1 billion in the next 4-5 years. Again Blackstone will contribute, even as half of it would be from existing clients. In the last three months, we already met 10 different Blackstone portfolio companies and intend to meet more.

You are targeting $1 billion in the next 4-5 years, what are the growth sectors?

We are more than doubling. In terms of the specific areas, our existing clients are the biggest component of this growth and we estimate at least 50 per cent of the growth will come from existing client and the remaining 50 per cent will come from combination of new logos and Blackstone portfolio companies.

Would you also be looking at acquisitions as a strategy to grow?

We will not be doing acquisitions just for scale but will be doing it for more value than scale. We will look for buys, if there are specific capabilities in verticals, analytics or robotics that we don’t have or we may have but can be substantially outmatched by our acquisitions. Those areas are where we will make acquisitions, either a total acquisition or a partial acquisition.

Digital seems to be the next wave. What are your plans?

We have been investing in this space for the last three years and we have reached a stage where we have got roughly about 120 different technology products and applications that are in various stages of deployment. For the last one year, we have been deploying these applications.

Where do you see the opportunities coming up in the next couple of years?

Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BSFI) has been a traditional sector and it continues to do well. In terms of verticals, we see a lot of traction from healthcare and retail (including both traditional retail and the e-commerce technology component).

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