Barclays Bank is to acquire a 50% stake from in Mumbai,
India-based Intelenet Global Services, the business process
outsourcing (BPO) arm of HDFC.
Barclays will pay about $37m (£20m) for the stake in
Mumbai-based Intelenet. After the acquisition, HDFC and Barclays
will each hold a 50% share in the joint venture.
Barclays, a financial services conglomerate, is expected to
bring significant international financial services expertise to
Intelenet.
India's BPO industry is consolidating, with a number of recent
high-profile acquisitions.
IBM announced in April that it plans to acquire Daksh eServices,
a BPO company in Gurgaon, near Delhi. Earlier this year Citigroup
decided to increase its stake from 44% to 100% in e-Serve
International, a Mumbai-based BPO company that has Citigroup
entities worldwide as its only clients. Citigroup owns equity in
the e-Serve through its subsidiary, Citibank Overseas Investment
Corporation.
Indian BPO companies need capital, brand and marketing muscle
abroad to scale their businesses, and consolidation is expected to
continue, according to Ravindra Datar, principal analyst for IT
services and BPO at Gartner India Research and Advisory
Services.
Barclays already outsources some work to Intelenet, but
currently that business accounts for about 100 of Intelenet's
employees, said Susir Kumar, chief executive officer of Intelenet.
Business from Barclays is expected to grow, although Intelenet will
operate as an independent third-party service provider, "rather
than as a captive unit for Barclays", he said.
The acquisition is expected to be completed by October. HDFC,
which held 50% equity in Intelenet, last month acquired the
remaining 50% from joint venture partner, Tata Consultancy
Services, a software and services company in Mumbai.
Intelenet has more than 4,300 employees and 19 clients. Its
client list includes US and UK companies which have outsourced
voice, back office and accounting processes. Intelenet serves
clients across the banking, insurance, credit cards, telecom,
retail and hospitality industries.
John Ribeiro writes for IDG News Service