Narayan AmmachchiFrench BPO giant Teleperformance has finally won the bid to acquire its Indian rival Intelenet from American equity investor Blackstone.
The bidding process, which saw the participation of several global BPO industry players, including Convergys, ended with Teleperformance agreeing to pay US$1 billion.
Intelenet is not widely known in India’s vast outsourcing industry, largely because it is primarily a call center company competing with Philippines-based providers. Thanks largely to its acquisition of Serco’s Indian operations, a large majority of its employees are based out of India.
Founded in Mumbai in 2001, the BPO provides customer management, outbound sales and analytics services, with most of its clients belonging to banking, financial services, healthcare, travel, and telecom sectors.
It runs delivery centers in Guatemala and the United States, in addition to the Philippines, Europe, and the Middle East.
“The acquisition of Intelenet is a milestone for Teleperformance towards achieving its 2018-2022 strategic plan,” stated Daniel Julien, CEO of Teleperformance.
“This transaction is (…) immediately creating value for Teleperformance’s shareholders, as it should result in a positive + 10% impact on earnings per share in 2018 on a pro forma basis.”
Blackstone, apparently making good money from the transaction, has sold Intelenet twice. The equity firm first acquired the BPO for US$260 million in 2007 and then sold it to British provider Serco for US$634 million in 2011. Two years later, it took Intelenet back for around US$300 million.
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