Aegis Ltd, the business process outsourcing (BPO) arm of the diversified Essar Group, has signed an agreement to sell its operations in three countries to Teleperformance for $610 million (about Rs 3,660 crore). The company is divesting its outsourcing business in the U.S., the Philippines and Costa Rica.

With revenues of about $400 million and more than 19,000 full time employees, Aegis USA runs a total of 16 centres across these three countries. It has premium clients in the U.S. market, serving industries such as healthcare, financial services, travel and hospitality, the company said in a statement.

“This transaction fits the strategic objectives of Essar Fund in the rapidly growing high-quality assets and delivering value creation, in this case through a sale to a high-quality strategic player in Teleperformance. This transaction will also yield many synergies and benefits for Aegis’ employees and esteemed customers,” Uday Gujadhur, Board Member, Essar Capital and fund manager for Essar Global Fund said.

“We look forward to continue to grow the Aegis portfolio in our other markets…,” he added. Essar had made its BPO foray through the acquisition of Aegis Communication Group, USA, in 2004. Teleperformance, which had reported €2,433 million ($3,236 million) in consolidated revenue in 2013, is a Euronext-listed outsourcing firm.

Aegis will continue to retain its other BPO operations in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Australia, South Africa, Peru, Argentina, Saudi Arabia and UK. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to close during the third quarter of 2014.

“Most notably, Teleperformance will be in a strong position to take on higher levels of call volumes, essential as the US consumer activity increases through the coming months, which will lead to enterprises seeking out contact centre partners to help deal with both demand and high levels of customer care. It also increases the Teleperformance presence in Costa Rica and the Philippines, countries that already have a strong commercial and cultural affinity with the US, and ones in which Teleperformance already has solid footprints,” said Peter Ryan, Principal Analyst of Ovum's IT Services team.

“Defensively, it helps Teleperformance shore up capacity in an industry where consolidation has been pervasive over the past 24 months,” he added. The transaction is not subject to a financing condition, it added. Post the transaction, Aegis would have operations in 37 locations across nine countries with more than 37,000 employees.