Hinduja TMT, Fox Mandal in LPO venture

Hinduja TMT (HTMT) and Fox Mandal Little "" an Indian firm providing legal outsourcing services to multinational companies and international law firms "" have set up a 60: 40 joint venture with Centric, a UK-based business consulting and outsourcing organisation. The new company will be named Centric LPO.

The joint venture will mark HTMT's foray into the legal process outsourcing (LPO) sector and will enhance its onshore delivery capabilities around the world.

The deal is also expected to enable Centric LPO to expand its existing client base. Fox Mandal Little will provide legal services to the JV through its lawyers.

The current annual value of legal outsourcing in the country is worth $80 million (around Rs 350 crore) and can increase to $4 billion by 2015, according to a Forrester report.

HTMT recently acquired Affina, a US-based BPO firm, for $30 million (around Rs 135 crore) to strengthen its presence in the US market. With this JV, the company is also scouting for acquisitions in the BPO sector.

"We are in talks with three companies with presence in India as well as in the US. We feel that acquisition will be a strategy for inorganic growth for the company," Yagnesh Sanghrajka, Global CFO, HTMT said.

Partha Sarkar, CEO, HTMT, in a press statement said, "LPO is emerging as a key vertical in knowledge-based services and we are among the first pure play BPO firm to tap the segment in India.

Our tie-up with Centric will further strengthen our capabilities in the knowledge process outsourcing area and help us to explore new opportunities in the US and the UK, the top primary markets for LPO. This partnership has the potential to grow to a sizeable $40 million business in the next three years with healthy profit margins."