Intelenet acquires two Blackstone companies for $75

MUMBAI: Blackstone-backed BPO Intelenet Global Services has acquired two companies, Upstream and Travelport ISO, which were part of the private equity firm’s portfolio. This could mark the beginning of more such deals and outsourcing opportunities through the relationship with Blackstone, an Intelenet official said.

The acquisitions, made for $75 million by buying out a Blackstone holding company, give Intelenet a wider presence and multi-lingual capability, CEO Susir Kumar said. They will add about Rs 300 crore to the company’s revenues in the current fiscal and about 2,400 to its total employee strength.

He said the deal sets the stage for more such inorganic and organic growth opportunities for Intelenet through Blackstone, including some backoffice processes for Blackstone-controlled Hilton Hotels group. Dialogues have been initiated with 26 Blackstone portfolio companies. “We will look at inorganic and organic growth leveraging Blackstone’s portfolio of companies,” he said.

Blackstone’s US and Europe offices have constituted special teams that are working on possible outsourcing opportunities from its portfolio companies to Intelenet, as well as those that have captives that can be integrated with Intelenet. A similar special team focused on this has also been formed in Intelenet.

“Hilton could be a potential opportunity for us. Blackstone is one of the largest real estate players in the world - all these could be potential opportunities,” Mr Kumar said.

Upstream gets a large part of its business from the travel industry. Travelport is the India-based captive unit of the global travel services firm Travelport.