Blackstone group acquires majority stake in Serco’s BPO unit in Gurgaon for Rs 2,558 crore

Blackstone group has purchased a controlling stake in Serco’s BPO unit in Gurgaon for a consideration of £250m (Rs 2,558 crore).

The enterprise value of this deal represents the largest acquisition by Blackstone in India. It had sold the BPO business Intelenet to Serco for $634 million in 2011.

The business has expected annual revenues of approximately £235m (Rs 2,405 crore) for this year.

The company has 51,000 full time employees across 67 centres in 8 countries. The private sector BPO business provides a range of middle and back office services, and has a strong customer base of international organisations, predominantly across the financial services, insurance, telecoms, travel and healthcare sectors.

“We are excited to embark on the Intelenet 2.0 journey and delighted to once again partner with the company’s management team. With a market leading position in the offshore banking and travel/hospitality verticals and #1 position in domestic India BPO, Intelenet has the core platform to capitalize on future growth opportunities,” said Amit Dixit, Senior Managing Director and Co-Head of Private Equity in India at Blackstone.

“We plan to replicate the same formula for success — energize the employee base, focus on world-class operations to drive customer satisfaction, provide multi-geography and multi-language delivery, and enhance the company’s capabilities in target segments organically and inorganically.”

“The business however was sold because of change in strategy of Serco which led to the sale of its private sector BPO business. We have retained almost all of our clients and key staff that we have had since our inception and look forward continuing to add value to them,” said Susir Kumar, Chief Executive Officer, Serco Global Services. “We will shortly be working on a strategy that will enable us to significantly enhance our offering to existing customers and prospects. With the present management team continuing, this represents a seamless change of ownership and business as usual for all our stakeholders.”

Under the terms of the transaction, the business will continue to be led by Susir Kumar, and the existing management team, which has been instrumental in the growth of the company.