ICICI OneSource, which was rechristened as Firstsource Solutions today, filed its papers with Sebi for an initial public offering (IPO) of 95.6 million shares.The IPO is expected before March 2007, and the company plans to list the shares on the BSE and the NSE. The IPO will include a fresh issue of 60 million shares of Rs 10 each, and sale of 35.6 million shares by the ICICI Group. The price will be determined through a 100% book-building process.The company's paid-up capital after the issue will stand at Rs 416 crore, and the IPO will comprise 23% of the post-issue paid capital of Firstsource."The name change is a step towards creating an independent identity. With both ICICI OneSource and ICICI Bank going global, there was some confusion about the name. The new identity should solve this problem. We chose a name that resonated with what we want to be," CEO and MD Ananda Mukerji said.He added that the IPO proceeds would be used to retire $10 million (around Rs 45.50 crore) debt out of the total liability of $22 million (a little over Rs 100 crore), funding acquisitions and capital expenditure.Firstsource has earmarked Rs 180 crore for acquistions in the near future, added CFO Rajesh Subramaniam.Post-issue, ICICI Group, which currently holds less than 50% stake, will see its holding drop to 34.2% but will continue to remain the principal stakeholder in the company. ICICI Bank holds 10.66% in the company, and its stake would come down to 9.13% post-IPO. Meanwhile, Sequoia, Temasek (holds 25.8%) and Metavante, the other partners, will also offload a part of their stake. Sequoia's stake, post-issue, will be around 9%.Firstsource currently employs 9,000 people, and has 17 delivery centres in India, US, UK, Argentina and the Philippines. For the six months ended September 2006, the company reported a net profit of Rs 32.12 crore on sales of Rs 343 crore. The revenue is equally distributed across the US and UK geographies as part of the company's 'derisking' strategy.I-OneSource's call centre (customer acquisition and care) business includes out-bound and in-bound telesales, cross-sell and up-sell programmes and comprises around 45% of the revenue. For 2005-06, Nasscom ranked the company fifth after Genpact, WNS, Wipro BPO and HCL BPO services.Mukerji wants to better the score. According to a recent Dun & Bradstreet study, Genpact has become the leading ITeS-BPO company with 19,700 employees followed by WNS, Wipro BPO, HCL Technologies BPO Services and ICICI Onesource.Also Read: I-OneSource plans to pursue acquisitions
