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In its largest acquisition till date, the Essar Groupowned Aegis Communications has bought Philippinesbased BPO PeopleSupport for USD250 million. This is the BPO firms eleventh acquisition in the last three years. Aegis has signed a definitive agreement to buy the Nasdaq listed firm, Aegis CEO and MD Aparup Sengupta said. Following the acquisition, PeopleSupport will delist and the Essar group will own 100 percent of the entity.
Aegis will pay PeopleSupport stockholders USD12.25 per share in cash through Essar Services Mauritius. This is a premium of around 29 percent over PeopleSupport’s closing share price on August 1, 2008, the last trading day prior to the announcement. Credit Suisse was the financial advisor to PeopleSupport in the transaction.
We believe that this combination will deliver superior value to PeopleSupports stock holders and customers as well as provide our employees with the opportunity to be part of a larger enterprise and to explore career opportunities in new geographies, PeopleSupport CEO and chairman Lance Rosenzweig was quoted as saying in a statement.
PeopleSupport has annual revenues of around USD 141 million and Aegis, which is unlisted, has revenues of USD 320 million. The revenues from the combined entity will reach about USD 500 million by March 2010, Mr Sengupta said. The transaction is being funded from internal accruals of the Essar group, he added.
The acquisition gives Aegis a sizeable presence in Philippines, which is a key region for BPO players servicing the US market, as well as presence in Costa Rica.
The Costa Rica facility gives it a nearshore presence to US a presence close to the customer market as well as the ability to service Spanishspeaking regions in the US in Spanish. PeopleSupport has three centres in Philippines and one in Costa Rica.
In all, Aegis gets about 8,500 employees from the acquisition. This will change how its services are delivered across locations, Mr Sengupta said. Currently, about 37 percent of its services are from the US and the rest from India. Postacquisition, about 33 percent of services will be delivered from Philippines, 40 percent from India and 27 percent from US.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the next 120 days and there will be emotional and economic incentives for key personnel to continue with the new management, he said. Aegis will also gain customers in travel, an industry in which it does not have any clients.
About 23 percent of PeopleSupports revenues come from customers in the travel industry, 33 percent from financial services and the rest from technical support and related areas. Aegis will now cater to five industry segments, including telecom, healthcare, retail and utilities.
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