ICICI OneSource Limited, a company promoted by the ICICI Group, announced its entry into the global Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) business. ICICI OneSource will offer contact center and transaction processing services to international companies. The contact center services include a wide range of products including inbound and outbound calls, e-mail and chat services. In this area, the ICICI OneSource Group already has a number of international customers in various sectors ranging from financial services, telecom, retail and travel. In the transaction processing area, ICICI OneSource is focusing on specific verticals in the financial services sector where it has extensive domain knowledge, including retail banking, credit cards, mortgages, insurance and asset management.

According to Gartner Group estimates, the global BPO market is expected to reach US$ 234 billion by 2005. Nasscom and McKinsey have recently increased their projections for the Indian IT Enabled Services market in 2008 to US$ 21 billion from the US$ 18 billion earlier. About 30% of this business is expected to come from banking, insurance and financial services.

Announcing the launch, Mr. K.V. Kamath, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Bank said, We believe that state-of-the-art capabilities in CRM and transaction processing is core to banking success and it is important for us to remain at the cutting edge of technology in this area. ICICI OneSource has been set up to leverage our Group's extensive in-house capabilities and tap the huge market for international BPO.

Mr. Ananda Mukerji, who has been appointed as Managing Director and CEO of ICICI OneSource said, "A large number of companies have announced their entry into this business. The successful companies will be those with a credible brand, ability to access capital and deep domain knowledge in their product offering. ICICI OneSource is uniquely positioned in this respect."

ICICI OneSource also announced that it is acquiring CustomerAsset, a leading Bangalore based contact center services company at a total Enterprise Value of US$ 19.3 million. In a span of two years CustomerAsset has established its credentials as one of the best contact center companies in India. The company has a leadership position in the UK market and a strong in-market position in the USA. CustomerAsset has over 10 international customers, including several Fortune 500 companies. Ernst & Young were the Financial Advisors for the transaction.

As per the terms of the agreement, ICICI OneSource will acquire CustomerAsset’s India, USA and UK operations. CustomerAsset has over 750 employees and operates a 350 seat contact center facility in Bangalore. Another 600 seat facility is being setup at Bangalore and is expected to be operational by August 2002. Ongoing recruitment to add 800 employees in three months to address the ramp-up needs of existing projects is currently underway. The company has eVentures, antfactory and Jumpstartup as venture capital investors.

Mr. Mukerji added, "The acquisition would provide ICICI OneSource a proven contact center team and a growing list of Fortune 500 clients. The company would shortly have 1500 seats in 3 centers in Mumbai and Bangalore. This would provide effective business continuity and disaster recovery capability, crucial in big ticket back office processing offerings."

“The financial strength, domain expertise and brand name that ICICI OneSource represent proved to be compelling reasons for us to pursue this relationship. The combined value proposition will help enrich the suite of services offered and enable us to move up the value chain to provide an enhanced offering to our clients” said Mr. K Ganesh, Co-founder & CEO, CustomerAsset, who has joined ICICI OneSource as President, Contact Center Business. 

About ICICI OneSource :

ICICI OneSource (www.ICICIonesource.com) is the international business process outsourcing company promoted by the ICICI Group. It's 500 seat BPO center in Mumbai is expected to be operational in June 2002.

About CustomerAsset :

CustomerAsset (www.customerasset.com) is a global contact center services company servicing businesses in the UK and the US. CustomerAsset’s offshore center is located in Bangalore, India and its global subsidiaries are headquartered in San Mateo and London.

For media queries contact:
Madhvendra Das at (+91-22) 6536124 or e-mail : madhvendra.das@icicibank.com   

Brian Carvalho, Corporate Marketing Manager, CustomerAsset, at (+91-80) 6537030 (Ext:157) or
e-mail: brianc@customerasset.com

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