Mphasis to buy Princeton Consulting

The MphasiS BFL Group, a leading provider of IT and BPO solutions, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Princeton consulting, a London based specialist consulting company, for approximately 7.73 million pounds (including cash of 3.23 million pounds in the business) in an all cash deal.

The net value of the deal adjusted for the surplus cash remaining in Princeton Consulting is 4.5 million pounds. The transaction is expected to be immediately EPS accretive.

Princeton Consulting, a profitable company with annual revenue in excess of 6 million pounds, is a niche consultancy services organisation established in early 1997.

The company provides high quality, leading edge CRM solutions and process improvement services to blue-chip and high growth companies In the UK & other European countries.

Princeton's areas of expertise include multi-channel Customer Service & Support, Sales Force Management, Content Management and Business Intelligence.

Princeton Consulting has about 100 employees and services an impressive list of blue chip customers in UK & Europe. In 2003, it was ranked 7th in the Deloitte & Touche Indy 100 awards for UK's fastest growing companies and in 2002 it was named 54 in the top 500 survey of Europe's Most Dynamic Entrepreneurial companies.

Commenting on the acquisition, Mr. Jerry Rao, Chairman & CEO, MphasiS BFL said, "We believe that the acquisition of Princeton will offer us an access to business process improvement consulting skills as well as an established client base. Through this acquisition, we are excited to be able to broaden our service offering for BPO and IT services in the UK and other European markets."

According to a release issued to the BSE today, the transaction is expected to be completed in the quarter ending March 31, 2005.

The Mphasis BFL stock has moved up 7% (Rs 18) to Rs 262.