Sitel buys 50% in India JV from Tatas for $22.2 mn

NEW DELHI: World's second largest BPO company Sitel Corp has bought back its 50% stake in Sitel-India - a JV it had with the Tata Group for $22.2 million.

India's largest IT company Tata Consultancy Services owned 40% stake in Sitel-India which it has sold to Sitel Corp for $17.73 million. Another 10% stake worth $4.5 million has been bought by Sitel Corp from Tata International.

Sitel India was a joint venture between the Tata Group and Sitel Corp, formed in 2000, with both parties holding 50% of the equity. Sitel India CEO Safir Adeni told ET: "The buyback shows that Sitel Global is very bulish on India. We grew at faster than the BPO industry last year and plan to grow faster with this buyback. We will double our employee headcount to 8,000 in India by 2008."

According to sources, Sitel Corp was cajoling the Tatas for a long time to buy their 50% stake. The buyback values the company at $44.4 million. The company's revenues stood at $45 million, last year.

The buyback may help Sitel-India in lot of ways. It will remove the ambiguity of ownership which prospective clients might have before outsourcing. It will also help the BPO in employing several of its IPR practices.

Sitel India employs 4000 people in its four centres across Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. It plans to add about 2000 people by 2008 in its new centre in Gurgaon.