Narayan AmmachchiAegis has been purchased by Singapore-based private equity firm Capital Square Partners for US$300 million, as the BPO provider’s parent, Essar Group, has come under tremendous pressure from Indian lenders to repay debt.
Although headquartered in India, Aegis has employed more than 5,500 people in Argentina, where it runs five delivery centers in the country’s major cities including Buenos Aires, Tucumán, and Cordoba.
Aegis has call centers in Peru as well, but its Costa Rican operations were sold off to Teleperformance in 2014.
Most of Aegis’ Latin American delivery centers cater to US clients in industry verticals such as banking, insurance, telecom, health, travel, and hospitality.
Essar Group has stated in a press release that it had similarly sold its oil business, Essar Oil, as it has determined to repay a US$1.16 billion loan it owed to banks in India.
“The closure of this transaction is yet another validation of Essar Global Fund’s commitment to reduce its leverage by monetizing the non-core businesses in its portfolio,” said Uday Gujadhur, a senior executive of Essar.
Founded in 2003 as Aegis Communications, the BPO provider has employed more than 40,000 people in a dozen countries including Australia, the United Kingdom, and South Africa.
According to Indian news outlets, Aegis makes US$500 million in annual revenue and is vowing to double its income over the next three years under the new owner.
Its new owner, Capital Square Partners (CSP), is not new to outsourcing. CSP has made several investments in the technology services and BPO sectors over the past decade. It ran Minacs, an Indian BPO firm previously owned by Aditya Birla Group, for two years before selling it off to Concentrix in late 2016.
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