Essar Group's Aegis Ltd is eyeing its 17th acquisition of a BPO (business process outsourcing) company with focus on the BFSI or financial services sector, according to its Managing Director and Global CEO, Mr Aparup Sengupta.
The acquisition will sharpen the company's industry focus and enable the geographical expansion in regions like Europe, he said.
15-member team
A 15-member team consisting of former bankers is working on the merger and acquisition strategy. At any point of time, the team is evaluating around 15 deals, he told newspersons, after announcing a $2-billion deal with Saudi Telecom on February 1.
The STC deal will give a 20 per cent jump in revenue for the company. The present 50:50 revenue mix from both organic and inorganic will change post the STC deal with organic contributing more, he said. Aegis, which is part of the $15-billion Essar Group, “will not do any acquisition in India as the assets are heavily priced. Abroad, we get reasonable valuations,” he said.
Out of the 16 acquisitions that Aegis had done so far, only one failed as the founders of that company left at an early stage. It was a small company with revenue of around $1 million. Nearly 50 per cent of the $800 million revenue for Aegis came from acquisitions, he said.
Mr Sengupta did not reveal the size of the likely acquisition, but said the profit making company has enough funds with it. As a global outsourcing company, Aegis provides total customer lifecycle management serving over 150 clients through a network of 47 delivery centres spread across 11 countries, including the US, India and the Philippines. It has over 50,000 employees and serves customers in BFSI, telecom, healthcare, travel and hospitality sectors, he said.
During the next 12 months Aegis will add 11,000 employees. With attrition at 40-60 per cent (for every 100 people 40-60 leave the company), Mr Sengupta said this is an industry phenomenon with more number of people leaving the organisation at the entry level. “We run the company like a university and do not get tired with people leaving us as more joins us,” he said.
Big league
After the STC deal, Aegis will not only become a $1-billion company in the next couple of years, but also move to the top two or three companies in the sector. It now is among the top five global BPO companies, he said.