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EXLService In Talks With 6-8 Players For Possible Deals

By Reuters

  • 24 Aug 2011

Business process outsourcing firm ExlService Holdings Inc. is in talks with six to eight industry players for acquisitions that could total $130 million, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

"We are not shy about doing a larger-sized acquisition for the right asset. If we feel there is a strategic fit for a particular company we are trying to acquire, we won't hesitate," Rohit Kapoor told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of an industry conference.

"We would love to continue to build out more domain capability in insurance, build domain capability in banking and financial services," he said.

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Insurance outsourcing services account for about 54 per cent of revenue for EXL, which competes with BPO rivals Genpact and WNS Holdings in a sector at the heart of India's recent economic rise.

"We also look to expand geographically and for us looking at onshore US presence is another area of strategic importance," Kapoor said, without naming any companies.

Kapoor added that the company was looking at building up scale in analytics services through purchases, and that $80 million in cash and a $50 million bank credit line was "adequate" to fund the plans.

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The firm said in May it had agreed to buy privately-held Outsource Partners International, a provider of financial and accounting outsourcing services, for an enterprise value of $91 million.

EXL has about 17,000 employees and expects to add another 6,000 on a gross basis in 2011, Kapoor said, shrugging off any possible impact of a recession in the West harming growth.

"If there is a double-dip recession that takes place, the work that we do doesn't get affected that much," Kapoor said.

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Officials at major players in India's flagship $76 billion BPO industry have played down the threat of further recession in the US and Europe, which account for 70 per cent of its revenue.

The industry lobby group National Association of Software and Services Companies on Tuesday maintained its forecast of export revenue growth of 16 to 18 per cent for the year to March 2012.

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