Comments
Essar group's Aegis Ltd, a global outsourcing services company, has won a $2-billion order to manage the customer-care operations of Saudi Telecom Company (STC), including billing, directory enquiry, collection and verification of telecom operations.
As part of the eight-year deal announced today at a press meet here, Aegis and STC will float a near equal joint venture, Contact Centre Company (CCC), with STC as the anchor. From March, CCC will provide customer care service to over 28 million STC customers in Saudi Arabia.
In the first phase, STC will transfer to the joint venture 550 of its agents providing directory assistance. Over the next 18-24 months, the balance 4,500 STC customer care agents will become part of Aegis.
“Hiving off customer care to Aegis will help us concentrate on our core competence of telecom operations,” said Dr Fahad H. Mushayt, Strategic Investments Unit Head, STC.
In CCC, both partners will have near equal stake with STC holding 50 per cent plus one share. Aegis will have operational and control responsibilities. CCC will enjoy an exclusivity contract with STC, the companies said in a joint statement. “Over a longer period, we will see a cost reduction of 20-30 per cent by giving the work to Aegis,” Dr Fahad H. Mushayt told newspersons.
Mr Aparup Sengupta, Managing Director and Global CEO, Aegis, said that once the transition is complete, the company hopes to get an annual revenue of around $250 million. The order also marks the company's entry in a “large way in the Gulf”.
“This is a landmark order not only for us but for the whole BPO industry,” he said without revealing any details of the investment plans in the new joint venture.
Mr Sengupta said that in the next three-four years, the joint venture company could double its staff strength in Saudi Arabia to around 10,000, all of them being local people. “We always believe in recruiting local people to serve the respective markets whether in Saudi Arabia, the US or the Philippines,” he said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.