WNS acquires Aviva BPO for $230 mn

Warburg Pincus-controlled WNS Holdings on Tuesday acquired Aviva Global Services, the UK-based insurance giant’s captive BPO in India and Sri Lanka, for $230 million. WNS has beaten Aviva’s other vendors EXL and 24/7 Customer to clinch the deal.

The deal will also see WNS securing Aviva’s committed $1 billion outsourced work over an eight-year period. ET, in its edition dated June 2, had first reported on the impending transaction. WNS is expected to inform the US Securities Exchange Commission on Thursday.

WNS will fund the buyout through a $200 million line of credit from ICICI Bank, while Warburg, which owns 51% stake, will pump in around $30 million as equity contribution. This is one of the largest buyouts of a foreign captive BPO in India.

The buyout will bring over 6,500 employees of Aviva Global Services spread across Bangalore, Pune, Noida, Chennai and Colombo under the WNS fold.

WNS will be subcontracting part of the $1 billion deal with the other two vendors — EXL and 24/7 Customer. WNS, with a revenue of $459 million, has been aggressively looking at inorganic options to shore up its topline.

Meanwhile, 24/7 Customer has announced the transfer of 750 employees from its Aviva 24/7 centre in Chennai to Aviva Global Services as part of its “Build Operate Transfer” (BOT) contract. This is the second BOT contract that 24/7 Customer is executing for Aviva.

The first transfer was at the Bangalore facility, where 1,600 employees were transferred in January 2007. The Chennai centre has 750 employees servicing the Life and Motor insurance businesses of Aviva providing customer service, sales and finance and accounting operations.

Aviva had put its captive BPO operations in India and Sri Lanka on the block quite some time back. The bidding is also believed to have attracted the interest of global giants like Capgemini though this could not be confirmed independently.

Today’s deal also marks the first successful sale of a large BPO captive amidst raging debate on the long-term viability of captive units in view of escalating costs.

Source: indiatimes