The Hindu Business Line : Dalmias in talks to buy outsourcing firm in US

THE Dalmia group today said it is in talks to acquire a BPO company in the US with a turnover of $250-300 million, as part of its plans to emerge as a dominant ITES player in the market in the next few years.

"Our initial entry into the BPO business was in a small way when we acquired Colwell and Salmon (C&S) and turned it around. Now we plan to become a dominant player in the market for which we require a big BPO set-up. Hence, we want to go for a bigger acquisition. We are actively talking to a BPO company in the US," Mr Sanjay Dalmia, Chairman of Dalmia Group of Companies, told Business Line on phone from Europe.

Mr Dalmia said within the BPO sector, the group plans to focus on healthcare space in a big way. "In the IT sector we will be eaten up by others unless we are a big player in the market. I feel there is a major opportunity for us in the healthcare segment," he said, adding another area of focus would be financial services.

He said the US company, which the group was negotiating with, had close to 10,000 employees and turnover of $250-300 million. Mr Dalmia however declined to divulge the name of the company.

"We intend to close the deal in two months. After acquisition, we would outsource a substantial amount of work to India for cost advantage," he said.

Mr Dalmia said the group was yet to take a call on whether post-acquisition the newly acquired company would be merged with the group's existing BPO firm - C&S. "We have two options either to keep them as separate entities or to merge the two. We have not finalised things yet."

"In the next five years, BPO will be a large business for the Dalmia group. Moreover, in the BPO industry we plan to have a significant market share," he said.

C&S, which was acquired in 2003 by Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd (GHCL), the flagship company of Dalmia Brothers, has a domain expertise in high-end direct marketing solutions, including full service market research. C&S is a US-based niche BPO organisation servicing high-end clients across technology and healthcare sectors. A subsidiary of GHCL Ltd, C&S has two centres in the US, housing a total of 700 employees, and one centre in Noida with 500 professionals.

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