Barclays plans new BPO business in India

Barclays Bank and Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) are selling their Indian business process outsourcing unit, but the bank now plans to set up a new BPO business in India.

They are selling their joint shareholding in Intelenet Global Services to SKR BPO Services, a management buyout vehicle.

SKR is jointly owned by the management of Intelenet and private equity investor Blackstone GVP Capital Partners Mauritius V-B.

Intelenet provides business processing services to a variety of local and international customers. It is a 50/50 joint venture between Barclays and HDFC which was established in 2004. It has gross assets of £56.3m.

Following the sale, Intelenet will continue to provide Indian offshore services to Barclays. Intelenet has also agreed to assist Barclays in establishing a wholly owned BPO operation in India, which will serve Barclays’ incremental offshoring requirements going forward, said Barclays.

David Skillen, global operations principal at Barclays, said, “We look forward to working with [the Intelenet management] to establish our BPO operation in India and in the continued provision of services to Barclays.”

The value of the sale has not been disclosed by Barclays.

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