Usha Martin Group, a $750 million conglomerate, has acquired UK-based outsourcer Converso Contact Centres for an undisclosed sum.
The acquisition is aimed at spearheading the group's plans to accelerate its business process outsourcing (BPO) operations in India, South Africa and the UK. The investment is expected to create 1,400 new jobs in India and South Africa.
Prashant Jhawar, vice chairman of the group said, “Our strategy is to continually develop and diversify our business operations globally and we see the BPO market as having high growth potential. To exploit this opportunity, we are investing in both new and existing international locations and plan to build facilities for a total of 2,000 contact centre seats globally – both on-shore and off-shore. This will meet the demands of major blue chip organisations and give them the choice of leveraging domestic and overseas BPO capabilities.”
The Usha Martin group has diversified interests in telecom, software, mining and manufacturing. It also owns Ushacomm and Eppixcomm, the world's leading providers of business support systems for fixed, mobile, broadband/IP, cable, and satellite markets across America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.
The current acquisition, according to the company, will ensure close synergies between Ushacomm, Eppixcomm and Converso and add to the delivery of end-to-end customer care and billing solutions, and other back office services to their customers. The group's existing offices in India and South Africa will be used as the basis for building further BPO facilities.
Nalin Tikkoo, director, mergers & acquisitions, said, “We looked at a number of potential acquisition targets in the UK, some of them very large. However, Converso's impressive client list, strong financial services pedigree and an entrepreneurial spirit closely matched our own business culture. This gave Converso an edge over others and made it an ideal company to partner with.”
Source: Sify