NYSE-listed BPM firm Startek eyes $1-billion revenue in next 2 years

Business Process Management firm Startek is eyeing $1 billion revenue in the next two years. The New York Stock Exchange listed company’s revenue for FY2020 was $630 million.

Part of the push to reach this $1 billion target may also come from Chennai-based CSS Corp in which StarTek acquired 26 per cent stake in the company for $30 million, early this year. The company also has the option to acquire a majority stake in the CSS without being obliged to do so, it had stated then.

“Our collaborative effort is to take the advantage of CSS Corp expertise and allow them to collaborate with us to see the deep tech expertise we have of our understanding and the depth of the consumer experience area. So on these two fronts, I think we have joined ourselves at a front end to go to some of the customers and work with them deeply, and we are clearly seeing that there is a huge amount of opportunity to take this collaboration ahead of us,” said Aparup Sengupta, CEO and Chairman, StarTek.

For the FY2021, CSS Corp reported a revenue in the range of $150-170 million. From the financial point of view, CSS also improves StarTek’s margin performance. But Sengupta did not comment on if StarTek will increase its stake further in the company.

He however did say that the company has enough room for merger and acquisitions. “Acquisitions are not new to me, in my past role at Aegis I have done close to 14 acquisitions,” said Sengupta.

Sengupta who has been a veteran of the BPM industry, he earlier headed Aegis which was BPM arm of conglomerate group Essar, after that in his PE role (partner at Capital Square Partners) he acquired BPM firm Minacs, which was later sold to US-based Synnex for $420 million in 2016.

In 2018, StarTek that was listed on NYSE acquired the BPM portfolio of Capital Square Partners, which included Aegis, and Capital Square Partner also took 55 per cent shareholding in the listed entity.

During the pandemic the company managed the work from home transition well, and also gave up 10 per cent of real estate in 2020 across the globe on account of hybrid work approach.

From the highs of $12 per share when Capital Square Partners took stake in the company, the share price has come down to $6 per share. In a recent development Sengupta bought $70,000 worth of shares for $6.97 per share on June 6, 2021. The company’s share price was $7.53 per share as the markets opened on June 17.