By IANS
Kolkata : Usha Matrin, a $750-million conglomerate which recently acquired the Britain-based outsourcer Converso Contract Centre, wants to develop and diversify globally in the business process outsourcing (BPO) market.
“Our strategy is to continually develop and diversify our business operations globally. We see the BPO market as having high growth potential. To exploit this opportunity, we are investing in both new and existing international locations and plan to build facilities for a total of 2,000 contact centre seats globally – both on-shore and off-shore,” vice-chairman of the group Prashant Jhawar said here Friday.
“This will meet the demands of major blue-chip organisations and give them the choice of leveraging domestic and overseas BPO capabilities,” he said.
Usha Martin’s recent acquisition of Converso is aimed at spearheading the group’s plans to accelerate its BPO operations in India, South Africa and Britain. The investment will create 1,400 new jobs in India and South Africa.
With diversified interests in telecom, software, mining and manufacturing, the Usha Martin Group also owns Ushacomm and Eppixcomm, world’s leading providers of business support systems for fixed, mobile, broadband, cable and satellite markets across America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific.
This acquisition will ensure close synergies between Ushacomm, Eppixcomm and Converso and add to the delivery of end-to-end customer care and billing solutions, and other back office services to their customers.
“The Group’s existing offices in India and South Africa will be used as the basis for building further BPO facilities,” Jhawar said.
Explaining why Converso was preferred over other companies, Nalin Tikkoo, director, mergers and acquisitions, said: “We looked at a number of potential acquisition targets in the UK, some of them very large. However, Converso’s impressive client list, strong financial services pedigree and an entrepreneurial spirit closely matched our own business culture.”
“Converso, a well-respected and established brand in the UK, has an edge over others and made it an ideal company to partner with,” he said.
“We are confident that this additional investment will take the company to the next level. We plan to use the UK operation as our headquarters and flagship organisation for BPO business worldwide, using this model as a blueprint for our future international centres,” he added.