Intelenet stacks up $40 mn for buyouts

ACQUISITIONS AND BUYOUTS GAINS GROUND

The domestic BPO business will be listed according to the acquisition agreement with Spanco.

Intelenet, the 50:50 business process outsourcing (BPO) joint venture between HDFC and Barclays, has lined up $30-$40 million for inorganic growth during the current fiscal in the US, UK and India.

The company recently acquired 51 per cent of Sparsh, a group firm of Spanco Telesystems to foray into the domestic BPO business.

CEO Susir Kumar said: "Our international business is growing at a fast clip and with the recent acquisition we have added the domestic portfolio. We have 4,500 people for the international BPO business and around 5,000 for the domestic. We intend to grow this by 30 per cent over the next year and this will be through acquisitions. We are looking at a couple of firms in the $30-$40 million range in India and also in the US and UK." He added that funds were not a constraint.

Kumar added that neither Barclays or HDFC are interested in diluting their stakes and they might look at going public by around 2008. The domestic BPO business will be listed according to the acquisition agreement with Spanco.

"When we decide to take the international BPO business public, we might look at merging both these," Kumar added.

The company depends on Barclays for around 15 per cent of the business and this is expected to go up to 40 per cent on the international front, while the domestic business will start to handle the complete BPO operations of the HDFC group.

Intelenet is also drawing up plans to set up a nearshore centre in the US and is putting in place alliances in Europe, South Africa and China to have a global footprint.

The global business has a top line of $60 million, while the domestic comes in with around $12 million.