Essar Group firm AGC Holdings is looking for BPO firms for acquisitions in untapped markets like Korea, Japan, Spain and Columbia.
On Thursday, Aegis announced its decision to sell its BPO business in the US, the Philippines and Costa Rica for $610 million to Paris-based outsourcing giant Teleperformance.
In 2004, Essar forayed into BPO business through the acquisition of Aegis Communication Group, US, which has since then become a USD 400 million revenue earner employing over 19,000 across 16 centers in 3 countries.
Aegis Global CEO Sandip Sen said: “Our focus is on the high growth areas in emerging markets of Korea, Japan and Spain. We will use organic and inorganic means to fuel our growth and increase our value proposition.”
The US, the Philippines and Costa Rica accounted for almost half of the total revenues of the BPO services provider.
Aegis’ strategy is to exit markets where return on investments (ROI) is around 7-8 percent, and enter markets in Asia and Latin America where ROI could be as high as 10-12 percent, PTI reported.
BPO markets like Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Spain have lot of growth potential. Besides, the firm is also expanding in the Middle East and Africa, which again goes parallel with its strategy to tap high growth areas in emerging markets.
Aegis is looking at expanding presence in Peru and Argentina, which is near-shore centers to the US and can handle the North American market. Also Spain will be helpful in further penetrating the Spanish-speaking market.
Besides, Malaysia can look after the markets in Korea and Japan. The South East Asian nation is already being tipped as one of the growth areas for BPO firms.
When asked about the reasons behind selling operations in geographies that accounted for half of the firm’s revenues, Sen said that the focus has changed and Aegis is focusing at emerging markets in Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Africa.
On increasing presence in Malaysia, Sen said the country has lot of potential and can become the next Singapore.
