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Aegis Ltd is planning to expand operations in Asian geographies, even as the BPO arm of the diversified Essar Group has put its stake-sale plans on ice.
The company is also exploring the possibilities of venturing into newer markets, including China and Africa, and would be ready for an initial listing in the next 12-15 months.
“We are looking at growing the existing geographies and at certain new locales. The Philippines and India have been the big geographies, but we believe the potential new geographies would be Malaysia and Indonesia,” Aegis Global Chief Executive Officer Sandip Sen told Business Line .
Sen, who took over as the CEO replacing Aparup Sengupta in December 2012, expects Malaysia to handle English and other Asian languages. It is also exploring locales closer to the US such as Jamaica and African markets of Ghana and Kenya to set up operations.
These would help Aegis increase presence to 16 countries from the present 13 and add another 5,000 personnel taking its total headcount to 60,000 in the next 12 months.
CHINA AHOY!
The BPO firm, with more than $1 billion in revenues, has a go-local strategy for foreign countries and also would look at conducting both domestic and global businesses from these locales. The company is also exploring opportunities to move into China, considered to be a tough terrain by Indian businesses.
“The issue is still the language. We have done some preliminary discussions (for a joint venture), but at this point in time I would say they are very preliminary…,” he said, adding that China is a big market.
Aegis has made about 21 acquisitions till date.
IPO IN PIPELINE
Aegis, which is one among the top 10 BPOs in the world, would look at an IPO in the next 12-15 months.
“Now, we are looking at growth, increasing margins and strengthening some of our verticals, and once we have attained all the goals we would look at an IPO. Now, there is no discussion at all of any stake stale,” Sen added.
This is against its earlier stance, when Essar group was looking at diluting stake and deploying the proceeds in its core projects such as shipping, mining and oil.
On the headwinds, he said that Europe has been in “doldrums” and don’t see recovery soon. Aegis’ European exposure is “very small”, he added.
thomas.thomas@thehindu.co.in
rajesh.kurup@thehindu.co.in
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