UK-headquartered business process outsourcing (BPO) firm Vertex is looking at acquisitions in India. The company, which got acquired by a consortium led by private equity player Oak Hill Capital earlier this year, is looking at rapid organic growth.
"With private equity as an owner, there is always a need to grow rapidly. We are looking at doubling our business in the next five years and also at acquisition opportunities in India," Vertex CEO Richard Graham told ET.
Mr Graham added that Vertex will look at small-and medium-sized companies as acquisition targets. Oak Hill Capital Partners, GenNx360 Capital Partners and Knox Lawrence International acquired Vertex for £217.5 million comprising cash, the repayment of intra-group debt and the retention by the purchaser of certain liabilities of Vertex from UK-based United Utilities.
US-based Oak Hill Capital Partners, which currently has $4.6 billion as assets under management, also has significant business interests in Indian BPO majors Genpact and EXL Services. With both Genpact and EXL Services listing on the US bourses, Vertex may also look at a public floatation at a later stage. “If you are owned by a private equity player, then you know one day you will get sold. It is yet to be decided by when will that happen,” added Mr Graham.
Vertex is also looking to move finance and accounting (F&A) and HR functions to its India back-office in Gurgaon. The company is exploring segments high-end work like engineering support services and IT infrastructure management. New capabilities like security services, data centre management, service desk provision and application maintenance are expected to contribute about 30% of its revenues in the next 12 months.
Recently, it transferred the work it was doing for British telecom major Orange to ExlService. “We don’t want to do plain voice-based, low-end BPO work. We want to do transformational kind of work. The Orange business was voice-based work and we arrived at an agreement with EXL and Orange to transfer that work to EXL. I don’t think we have more of such low-end work on our hands now,” said Mr Graham.
Vertex India has over 1,800 employees at its two Gurgaon centres. The company is also looking at an additional facility in India. The company’s head office is located in Liverpool and it has 9,000 employees based in 66 locations across the UK, US, Canada and India.
(Source: Economic Times
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Wipro buys singapore design company
Wipro Technologies will acquire Oki Techno Centre Singapore (OTCS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oki Electric Industry, Japan, over a period of one year and this would be its second acquisition in the semiconductor space with the earlier one being NewLogic.
OTCS registered revenues of 8.8 million Singapore dollars for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007 and has a 40-member team. Vasudevan Aghoramoorthy, V-P, Wipro Technologies said, this acquisition will enable them to meet the demand for newer wireless technologies and also expand its breadth of offering in the semiconductor design space.
For the first time, Wipro Technologies has made an acquisition in the Far East region with all its previous buyouts in the US and Europe.
OTCS is focussed on wireless design and has capabilities in radio frequency (RF) technologies. It mainly works for the parent company with some third party clients and Wipro expects to provide solutions for the semiconductor companies.
(Source: Economic Times)
OTCS registered revenues of 8.8 million Singapore dollars for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007 and has a 40-member team. Vasudevan Aghoramoorthy, V-P, Wipro Technologies said, this acquisition will enable them to meet the demand for newer wireless technologies and also expand its breadth of offering in the semiconductor design space.
For the first time, Wipro Technologies has made an acquisition in the Far East region with all its previous buyouts in the US and Europe.
OTCS is focussed on wireless design and has capabilities in radio frequency (RF) technologies. It mainly works for the parent company with some third party clients and Wipro expects to provide solutions for the semiconductor companies.
(Source: Economic Times)
Friday, September 28, 2007
Carlyle, TPG eye stake in NIIT
New Delhi-based IT company NIIT Technologies is learned to be in preliminary discussions with private equity players Carlyle and TPG to sell a majority stake. Industry sources said a strategic investor is also believed to be interested in the transaction.
Promoters currently hold 40% stake in NIIT Technologies and sources said they may sell anywhere between 25% and 40% in the company. This would trigger an open offer, where investors can buy an additional 20% in the company.
(Source: Economic Times)
Promoters currently hold 40% stake in NIIT Technologies and sources said they may sell anywhere between 25% and 40% in the company. This would trigger an open offer, where investors can buy an additional 20% in the company.
(Source: Economic Times)
Lupin acquires Rubamin Labs
Lupin, the country’s biggest maker of tuberculosis medicines, has bought Baroda-based Rubamin Laboratories (RLL), which will give it an entry into the global contract research and manufacturing services (CRAMS) business. The deal size was not disclosed.
Rubamin manufactures advanced intermediates and specialises in active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used in drug-making. The eight-year-old company has a wide customer base in Europe. It has a turnover of about $10 million.
RLL belonged to the Rubamin Group, whose main business is mining and metallurgy in India and Congo in Central Africa. RLL was hived into a separate company last year.
“The acquisition enables us to step up our strategic initiative in the CRAMS segment,” Lupin Chairman Desh Bandhu Gupta said. “We have a proven track record of achieving global position in every therapy that we have entered at the intermediate and API level.”
The global CRAMS market was estimated at $895 million in 2006 and growing at 43 per cent, according to business research and consulting company Frost & Sullivan.
(Source: Business Standard)
Rubamin manufactures advanced intermediates and specialises in active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used in drug-making. The eight-year-old company has a wide customer base in Europe. It has a turnover of about $10 million.
RLL belonged to the Rubamin Group, whose main business is mining and metallurgy in India and Congo in Central Africa. RLL was hived into a separate company last year.
“The acquisition enables us to step up our strategic initiative in the CRAMS segment,” Lupin Chairman Desh Bandhu Gupta said. “We have a proven track record of achieving global position in every therapy that we have entered at the intermediate and API level.”
The global CRAMS market was estimated at $895 million in 2006 and growing at 43 per cent, according to business research and consulting company Frost & Sullivan.
(Source: Business Standard)
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Bank of India may dilute 5pc govt stake
The country’s sixth-largest bank in terms of assets, Bank of India (BoI) is considering diluting 5% government stake.
Mr Narayanasami,BoI chairman and managing director, indicated the bank is weighing the option of raising resources through the qualified institutional placement (QIP) route. “We are open to both follow-on issue and the QIP route. However, latter offers more advantages since it could be faster and cost effective,” he said.
If the bank goes ahead with the QIP offering, it will be the first public sector bank to do so. Among private banks, Axis Bank and Centurion Bank of Punjab recently concluded QIP issuances. With 5% stake sale, the bank would raise close to Rs 600 crore at the current market price.
The resources raised will enable BoI fund its new businesses and help it in meeting the new Basel II norms. “It will be useful in making investments in the insurance business and in any new venture we may consider taking up in future,” Mr Narayanasami said. BoI has total assets of Rs 86,842 crore with net profit of Rs 1,123 crore as on March 31, 2007.
(Source: Economic Times
Mr Narayanasami,BoI chairman and managing director, indicated the bank is weighing the option of raising resources through the qualified institutional placement (QIP) route. “We are open to both follow-on issue and the QIP route. However, latter offers more advantages since it could be faster and cost effective,” he said.
If the bank goes ahead with the QIP offering, it will be the first public sector bank to do so. Among private banks, Axis Bank and Centurion Bank of Punjab recently concluded QIP issuances. With 5% stake sale, the bank would raise close to Rs 600 crore at the current market price.
The resources raised will enable BoI fund its new businesses and help it in meeting the new Basel II norms. “It will be useful in making investments in the insurance business and in any new venture we may consider taking up in future,” Mr Narayanasami said. BoI has total assets of Rs 86,842 crore with net profit of Rs 1,123 crore as on March 31, 2007.
(Source: Economic Times
UAE firm acquires 4% stake in Development Credit Bank
UAE company has acquired over four per cent stake in India's Development Credit Bank (DCB), marking its entry into the Indian market.
Al Bateen Investment Co LLC (ABI), a unit of the Abu Dhabi-based Al Ain International Group, announced in Abu Dhabi yesterday that it has acquired 4.24 per cent stake in DCB.
ABI invested by subscribing to DCB's preferential issue to a group of institutional investors. These include Tata Capital and the Mauritius-based GRA Finance Corporation.
DCB is one of the fastest growing private sector commercial banks in India.
Nearly 80 years old, DCB currently has a network of 72 branches in India and plans to double that number by 2009.
The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development is the largest stakeholder in the bank, holding more than a 55 per cent stake.
(Source: Economic Times)
Al Bateen Investment Co LLC (ABI), a unit of the Abu Dhabi-based Al Ain International Group, announced in Abu Dhabi yesterday that it has acquired 4.24 per cent stake in DCB.
ABI invested by subscribing to DCB's preferential issue to a group of institutional investors. These include Tata Capital and the Mauritius-based GRA Finance Corporation.
DCB is one of the fastest growing private sector commercial banks in India.
Nearly 80 years old, DCB currently has a network of 72 branches in India and plans to double that number by 2009.
The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development is the largest stakeholder in the bank, holding more than a 55 per cent stake.
(Source: Economic Times)
India's share in M&A deals in Asia spurts to 15%
India's share in the total merger and acquisition deals in Asia has gone up from 6 per cent in 2005 to 15 per cent in 2006, SBI Capital Markets said on Wednesday.
The leading investment bank, in a presentation made to the media, said Australia has the biggest share of M&A activity in Asia region and accounts for 28 per cent of the total deals. While India is the second largest contributor to the M&A deals with 15 per cent.
SBI Capital Markets Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer R Sridharan said, "Indian M&A market is poised for buoyant growth on the back of better regulatory environment, robust performance of Indian corporates and overall positive micro-economic indicators."
He said the value of M&A deals in the first half of 2007 at $50 billion has already crossed the total value of deals in the whole of 2006.
(Source: Economic Times)
The leading investment bank, in a presentation made to the media, said Australia has the biggest share of M&A activity in Asia region and accounts for 28 per cent of the total deals. While India is the second largest contributor to the M&A deals with 15 per cent.
SBI Capital Markets Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer R Sridharan said, "Indian M&A market is poised for buoyant growth on the back of better regulatory environment, robust performance of Indian corporates and overall positive micro-economic indicators."
He said the value of M&A deals in the first half of 2007 at $50 billion has already crossed the total value of deals in the whole of 2006.
(Source: Economic Times)
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