Essar group to delist Aegis from Nasdaq

The Rs 27,000 crore Essar group is planning to delist its US-based subsidiary Aegis Communications Group from OTC BB of Nasdaq through a 'short-merger' process. ACG Acquisition Inc, a special purpose vehicle (SPV), has been floated and Aegis Communications would be merged with the SPV.

The process is expected to be completed by October 31 after which Aegis Communications will cease to be a listed company.

Essar holds Aegis through Aegis BPO Services which owns World Focus (WF). World Focus, in turn, has floated the SPV for making the company private. Essar had acquired US-based Aegis BPO Services three years ago under its plans to foray into IT and ITeS businesses in that country.

"WF seeks to make Aegis a private firm through the short-merger route as per US laws and has already filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the regulatory body. The company (WF) is awaiting regulatory approvals for the short-merger," sources close to the development told Business Standard.

At present, WF holds 94.84 per cent stake in Aegis Communications and the remaining is held by retail investors. Aegis provides transaction-based business process outsourcing (BPO) services to companies across the globe.

Under the short-merger route, WF will transfer its holding in Aegis Communications to the SPV, and on completion of which the SPV will be merged with Aegis. After completion of the merger, Aegis will cease to be a public company.

When contacted Essar officials declined to comment on the delisting.

Aegis has centres in India and US has around 7,000 seats - 3,500 seats each in both the countries. The company was planning to double its capacity to 12,000 seats, with an addition of around 6,000 seats in India and around 2,000 in the US.