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
Thursday, 10 July 2008
WNS acquires Aviva BPO for $230 mn
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Tamil Nadu fishermen helping LTTE: Lanka
Tamil Nadu’s fishermen bitterly complain that the Sri Lankan Navy is aggressively preventing them from exercising their “traditional right” to fish in the Palk Strait, especially around Katchchativu island, which was ceded to Sri Lanka in the 1970s.
But the Sri Lanka Navy contends that the problem is not about Tamil Nadu fishermen poaching around Kachchativu, but the massive daily intrusion of these fishermen into Sri Lankan waters very near Mannar and Jaffna, posing a major security threat to North Sri Lanka.
“They not only poach fish, but smuggle in fuel and other war-like material for the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam),” Sri Lankan navy’s spokesman, Commodore DKP Dassanayake, told Express here on Tuesday.
For example, between June 6, 2007 and July 7 this year, asmany as 6,839 Indian fishing boats were seen off the north Sri Lankan coast, especially Thalaimannar, Pesalai and Delft island.
“These boats carry fuel, bicycle balls and explosives for the LTTE. Several of them have been seen heading towards Viduthalthivu and other places, presently under the control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.”
“We also learn that each boat gives 20 litres of fuel as a bribe to the LTTE to be able to fish in this area. Just imagine the amount of fuel that the LTTE must be getting on a daily basis from these fishermen,” Dassanayake said.
The Indian fishermen, however, claim complete innocence. They never admit that they go up to the Sri Lankan shores, leave alone admitting to any dealings with the LTTE.
Source: newindpress
Tuesday, 8 July 2008
Sri Lankan military says planes bomb rebel base
Sri Lankan fighter planes bombed a Tamil Tiger base Tuesday and the rebels ambushed an army patrol killing two soldiers in the country's war-ravaged north, the military said.
The attacks came a day after ground battles along the front lines of the civil war killed 19 rebels and two soldiers, according to the military.
The air force jets twice hit a logistics facility in the rebel-controlled Kilinochchi district Tuesday, the defense ministry said in a statement. The pilots confirmed the attacks were successful, but did not give casualty or damage details, the military said.
Hours later guerrillas ambushed soldiers on foot patrol, killing two of them in Vavuniya district bordering the rebel-held region in the north, the statement said.
In ground fighting Monday, troops killed 11 rebels in Vavuniya while in Jaffna a confrontation killed one soldier and wounded six others, the military said Tuesday.
Separate battles in Welioya killed seven guerrillas and one soldier, while in Mannar one rebel was killed, the military said.
Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan could not be reached for comment.
It was not possible to independently verify the military reports because journalists are banned from the northern jungles where much of the fighting takes place. Each side commonly exaggerates its enemy's casualties while underreporting their own.
The rebels have been fighting since 1983 to create an independent state for ethnic minority Tamils, who have been marginalized by successive governments controlled by ethnic Sinhalese. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
Source: AP
England name Sri Lanka as Zimbabwe replacement
England will host Sri Lanka for two Tests and three ODIs in April and May next year. Sri Lanka's tour slots in the fixture gap caused by England's decision to suspend bilateral ties with Zimbabwe and the cancellation of their 2009 visit.
David Collier, the ECB chief executive, was pleased with Sri Lankan's willingness to step in and ensure England will have a competitive series ahead of the Ashes later in the summer.
"The strong and close relationship which we built up during our recent winter tours to Sri Lanka allowed the ECB, at short notice, to be able to approach Sri Lanka and confirm their availability for the international matches in the early part of next summer," he said.
The ECB cancelled Zimbabwe's tour last month, minutes after Gordon Brown, the prime minister, told the House of Commons that he wanted the tour scrapped. The ban on a team from Zimbabwe entering the country also put in doubt England's hosting of next year's World Twenty20 next year, but as of now the issue has been resolved with Zimbabwe pulling out of the event.
Sri Lanka play three three-day games ahead of the Tests series, followed by a warm-up one-dayer before the ODI series.
Source: cricinfo
Turkish PKK running guns to tigers
Chief of Turkish General Staff Gen. Yasar Buyukanit said on Tuesday that terrorism was the biggest threat for global peace and security in the age of globalization.
Gen. Yasar Buyukanit
"For instance, the terrorist organization PKK/Kongra-Gel is responsible for the 80 percent of heroin smuggled into Europe, extortion in several European countries, or even running guns to terrorist organization Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. These are all meaningful in terms of showing the activities of terrorist organizations in international level,"
Source: turkishpress
S.Lankan shares slide to 1-year closing low
Sri Lankan shares fell 1.19 percent to a one-year low on Tuesday as concerns about the impact of high interest rates and inflation on corporate earnings added to worries about the long-running civil war.
The Colombo All-Share index .CSE closed 28.67 points weaker at 2,372.50, a 10th consecutive fall that took it to its lowest close since July 19, 2007. The market has fallen 11.8 percent from an 11-month high on April 23.
"Investor sentiment is very weak, mainly on earning fears," said Geeth Balasuriya, assistant research manager at HNB Stockbrokers.
"High inflation and high interest rates are pressurising profit margins of the companies due to high costs, while some companies are discouraged to go for new investments due to high borrowing cost."
Later this month, companies are due to start releasing their results for the quarter ended on June 30.
Sentiment on the corporate sector has been hit by poor economic data. Annual consumer price inflation rose to a 5-year high of 28.2 percent in June, while annual economic growth in the March quarter slowed to 6.2 percent from 7.6 percent in the previous quarter. See [ID:nCOL109662].
Market heavyweight Dailog Telekom DIAL.CM fell 1.82 percent at 13.50 rupees a share calculated on a weighted average, and leading fixed-line telephone operator Sri Lanka Telecom SLTL.CM fell 2.38 percent to 41 rupees.
Top conglomerate by market capitalisation, John Keells Holdings JKH.CM closed 0.69 percent weaker at 107.25 rupees, and private lender Hatton National Bank HNB.CM fell 1.23 percent to 100 rupees.
Conglomerate Hayleys HAYL.CM closed 0.73 percent firmer at 137.75 rupees. Traders said four block deals in the stock were seen during trade.
Hayleys accounted for more than 32 percent of total turnover of 270.55 million rupees ($2.5 million), which was two-thirds of last year's daily average of 400 million rupees.
The rupee
The interbank lending rate CLIBOR rose to 14.906 percent, up from Monday's 13.650 percent. ($1=107.65 rupees)
Source: Reuters
Monday, 7 July 2008
India's Cairn to invest 100 mln dlrs to explore oil in Sri Lanka
Cairn India, a unit of British exploration firm Cairn Energy Plc, plans to invest 100 million dollars to explore oil and natural gas deposits off Sri Lanka's coast, officials said Monday.
Spread over three years, the investment includes conducting further seismic studies and drilling three wells off the island's northwestern coast of Mannar, Cairn India's chief financial officer Indrajit Banerjee told reporters here.
"Oil and gas exploration is a risky business and success is not always guaranteed. We plan to do more seismic studies because as of now we don't know what's down there," Banerjee said.
Sri Lanka, which imports all of its oil needs, offered three blocks to investors after seismic surveys showed oil deposits along the Gulf of Mannar close to neighbouring India.
Block two, an area that covers around 3,400 square kilometres (1,360 square miles) off Mannar, was offered to Cairn in June after a competitive bidding process.
"The Mannar basin has not been explored in Sri Lankan waters and as such represents a frontier petroleum province," Banerjee said.
Cairn has been in South Asia for more than a decade and has developed a good understanding of the region's geology, Banerjee said.
Banerjee added the company has made over 40 oil and gas discoveries to date in India, including the Mangala discovery onshore in the deserts of Rajasthan, which has an estimated total oil in place of 3.7 billion barrels.
Sri Lanka's north and east has seen heavy fighting over the past three decades as separatist rebels push to carve out a separate homeland for minority Tamils from the majority Sinhalese community.
Fighting has intensified since January, when the government pulled out of a Norwegian-brokered ceasefire with the Tamil Tigers.
"We have taken the security aspect into consideration in our bid. And the government has told us that the area is out of danger," Banerjee said.
Petroleum minister A.H.M. Fowzie said the government will provide adequate security when Cairn's project gets off the ground in six months.
"We can provide enough security for the project," Fowzie said.
Besides Cairn, India's state-run ONGC Videsh and Canada's Niko Resources bid to explore block two.
Sri Lanka has already allocated two other blocks to the governments of India and China.
Fowzie said Cairn deposited a one-million-dollar cheque with the Sri Lankan government during Monday's signing ceremony.
The island spent just under three billion dollars in 2007 importing oil and Fowzie expects the fuel bill to climb to four billion dollars this year.
Over 35 years ago, overseas companies explored areas off Sri Lanka's northwest coast, but failed to find any oil and gas reserves worth exploiting commercially.
Source: AFP
Sri Lanka warns of rebel attacks in Colombo
Sri Lanka beefed up security on Monday and warned of possible rebel attacks around the capital Colombo as the island's Tamil Tiger rebels marked the 21st anniversary of their first rebel suicide attack.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on the weekend commemorated the 356 men and women who have blown themselves up suicide attacks since the first such attack on 5th July 1987, when the suicide bomber or Black Tiger drove an explosive-laden truck into a Sri Lankan Army garrison in northern Jaffna.
"According to the information bureau, the LTTE is planning disruptions in south - Colombo, the suburbs and other parts. We have put all police officers on alert," said police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekera.
Last year, Black Tiger commandos attacked the Sri Lankan airbase in north central district of Anudradhapura in the rebels' first combined Black Tiger and air attack, destroying several aircraft.
Separately, Sri Lanka's military said it killed 69 Tamil Tiger rebels in the island's far north in fresh weekend fighting. Five soldiers were also killed.
The fighting in the northern districts of Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar and Polonnaruwa came amid near daily land, sea and air attacks, as the government tries to gradually retake the rebels' northern stronghold in a bid to win the 25-year civil war.
"Troops killed 69 LTTE terrorists and injured 77 in fighting since Friday. Five soldiers died and 23 were injured from the fighting," said a military spokesman.
The military also said troops captured strategically important rebel bunkers in island's north on weekend while air force gunship helicopters attacked rebel positions.
The LTTE, fighting to create an independent state in north and east Sri Lanka for ethnic Tamils, a minority in the predominantly Sinhalese country, were not immediately available for comment.
Analysts say the military has the upper hand in the latest phase of the long-running war given superior air power, strength of numbers and swathes of terrain captured in the island's east, though they still see no clear winner on the horizon.
An estimated 70,000 people have died since the civil war began in 1983.
Source: Hindu
Bharti to start Lanka services by year-end
Bharti Airtel hopes to start providing services in Sri Lanka by the end of this year. Besides 2G, the firm is currently testing 3G services in the island.
"We will roll out both 2G and 3G network throughout Sri Lanka. The roll out will replicate the model currently followed in India," a source close to the development said. The company will initially start with Colombo and thereafter move to other towns and rural areas, he added.
Bharti has tied up with Huawei Technologies to build and manage GSM mobile infrastructure in Sri Lanka. Huawei will deploy and manage Airtel's core network, BTS and end-to-end 2G/3G network solutions. About 80% of Sri Lanka's mobile market is controlled by Dialog Telekom, a unit of Telekom Malaysia. "We will soon take a decision on the handset company with which we can tie up for bundled offers," the source said.
Meanwhile, Bharti intends to cover around 85% of India's rural population by the year-end. "We will expand in clusters to reach remote villages," said K Srinivas, Bharti executive director (east hub & Sri Lanka). Bharti currently enjoys 28.5% market share in eastern India. "We have already identified the areas that need to be covered," K Srinivas added.
Source: timesofindia
Canadian Tamils hold rally, condemn Ottawa's ban
Waving the flag of the Tamil Tigers guerrillas, thousands of Canadian Tamils gathered this weekend for their first rally since the federal government shocked the community by outlawing a Toronto-based Tamil non-profit group under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
A statement issued by the event's organizers condemned the government for last month's decision to ban the World Tamil Movement as a suspected financial front for the Tigers, and called on Canada to recognize guerrilla-held areas of northern Sri Lanka as an independent state, called Tamil Eelam.
"There is no other solution to this conflict," said Brian Senewiratne, a medical doctor from Australia who was the keynote speaker, addressing the large crowd at Downsview Park from a giant stage.
The Sri Lankan-born physician, who showed video clips of helicopter gunships firing rockets, called the Sri Lankan government a "murderous, barbaric regime" that was at war "against the Tamil people."
He said the Tamil Tigers, also known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, were a legitimate liberation movement. "There is a very clear distinction between terrorism and freedom fighters."
He urged the crowd to get more involved in the fight for Tamil independence.
"What I want to do is move you from watching things happen to making things happen." Canada's decision to ban the Tamil Tigers "has to be challenged," he said.
The rally was just the latest of many similar events that have taken place across Canada over the past decade but it came at a critical time: as the Tigers are apparently losing ground steadily on the battlefield and the Conservatives in Ottawa are taking a firm stand against Tamil Tigers activities in Canada.
Following a five-year RCMP investigation, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day announced in June that the government had placed the World Tamil Movement, which had offices in Toronto and Montreal, on Canada's list of outlawed terrorist groups because of evidence it was financing the Tigers.
The location of the rally was not announced until late Friday afternoon. The Sri Lankan United National Association of Canada had written to police asking them to cancel the event's permit because the Tigers are an outlawed terrorist group under Canadian law.
Participants were bussed in from around the region. They ranged from young children to the elderly, and carried signs that read: "O Canada you have a responsibility," and "Don't label us as terrorists."
Organizer Thiru Thiruchelvam said the location was only announced at the last minute because the event kept growing and they had to find a venue to accommodate the expected crowds.
"What we want is peace," said Thiruchelvam, who told how his 19-year-old son was killed by Sri Lankan government forces. "We are asking the Canadian government to get involved."
Sri Lankan Consul General Bandula Jayasekara denied Senewiratne's claim that Sri Lanka was at war with the Tamil people.
"The LTTE has killed more Tamil leaders than anyone else," he said. "Unfortunately the LTTE, a ruthless terrorist organization, has brought its ruthless war to Canada."
Source: canada.com
