Birla Reportedly in Talks to Sell Indian BPO Firm Minacs

Aditya Birla Minacs, an Indian BPO firm that expanded considerably in Latin American in 2013, is set to be sold to a private equity group for $250 million, according to reports on Indian press. In an interview with Nearshore Americas in November 2012, Minacs’ chief Deepak Patel said his company was the biggest BPO partner for the auto industry in North America. Months after this interview, Minacs launched a delivery center in Mexico and then in Jamaica.

With 21,000 employees in 35 locations, Minacs is India’s sixth largest BPO firm and is owned by the Birla Group, a huge business conglomerate often viewed as a counterweight to Tata Group, the parent company of TCS. No one from Birla has confirmed that they have put Minacs up for sale.

“The investor consortium has entered exclusive final discussions for a buyout, and a deal could be signed within a few weeks,” reported Business Standard, quoting unnamed sources. The Bangalore-based firm, whose revenue increased to $375 million in 2011 from $312 million the year before, was also seeking locations in the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica.

This is the second major BPO acquisition by any equity group in India after Partners Group’s acquisition of Chennai-based CSS Corp, which opened a delivery center in Costa Rica in July last year.

Minacs started offering IT services after it acquired PSI Data Systems in 2009. It went on to buy London-based Compass BPO to add finance and accounting services to its portfolio. In the same year, it acquired the Minnesota-based Bureau of Collection Recovery to add accounts receivables management and collections services to its portfolio.

Minacs was formed in 2007 with the merger of TransWorks, an Indian BPO company and Minacs, a Canadian CRM Services company. Today the company generates $450 million in revenue and $40 million in operating profits.