Indianomics

India is the hottest BPO destination. It will remain to be the hottest destination for quite some time. With the global meltdown and the Indian companies hunger for acquisitions Indian BPO’s are hotter than ever. TCS has grabbed Citigroup’s BPO for $505 million making it the second biggest BPO only next to Genpact. Global services media has released the top BPO companies for the year 2008 just before the TCS acquisition. The race for Citigroup’s BPO and Lehman Brothers BPO was fierce. Genpact was in the race for both the BPO’s. Though it did not get the Citi BPO Genpact continues to lead the BPO pack.

Some call the US crisis as a blessing in disguise for Indian BPO’s and IT companies. Major BPO units are on the block at a throw away price. Indian companies which are sitting on a pile of cash are fighting for their share of the action.

Based on the revenues the top 10 BPO’s are listed below :

1. Genpact : Recently added a new revenue stream of training. In collaboration with NIIT Genpact has its own training facilities for BPO industry which is a good revenue generator. Recent Wachovia fiasco could dent its profits but the long-term prospects look great.
2. Aditya Birla Minacs : Formed by the Canadian BPO Minacs (acquired for $125 million) and Aditya Birla Group BPO Transworks, ABM has expanded its expertise into data analytics and market research. It has a revenue of $392 million for the year ending in March 2008. It is now adding customers in Philippines and China.
3. TCS BPO : Fresh from the acquisition of Citigroup’s BPO TCS is already #2. It is well on its way to the number one status.
4. IBM Daksh : Makemytrip is the latest addition to this BPO clientele which already has Bharti Airtel as one of its customers.
5. WNS Global Services : Recently signed a multi-year contract with Biomet which provides healthcare revenue cycle management services. This is in addition to the Aviva deal it signed earlier this year.
6. Firstsource Solutions : Founded by ICICI, FirstSource is up for sale. It has a valuation of $400 million for 88% stake. Private Equity players like Blackstone, Apax Capital partners and Providence equity partners are in the race. The total company is valued at $580 million. Investors planning to offload their stake are ICICI bank, Temasek holding (Singapore0, Metavante (US based banking technology group) and few other investors.
7. Wipro BPO : Claiming a low attrition rate of 20%, Wipro is investing heavily in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities for expansion.
8. Infosys BPO : Betting high on Platform BPO, Infosys sees revenues up to 30% in platform BPO services. Platform BPO offers end-to-end services in a process.
9. Cambridge solutions : British outsourcing company Xchanging paid $145 million dollars to acquire a 75% stake in the company.
10. HCL BPO : 13000 strong HCL BPO contributes 12% revenues to its parent HCL Tech.

Some of the BPO’s are buying other BPO’s and some are up for sale. Come next year this list will be very different.