Usha Martin snaps up Converso

The Jhawar family, main shareholders of conglomerate the Usha Martin Group, have bought a 76 per cent stake in UK-based outsourcer Converso Contact Centres for an undisclosed sum.

The Usha Martin Group is a USD750m, diversified conglomerate with interests in telecoms, software, mining and manufacturing.

The investment in Converso will create 400 new jobs in UK and a further 1,400 in South Africa and India.

The acquisition marks another major milestone in the group's plans to accelerate its Business Process Outsourcing operations in the UK, India and South Africa.

Commenting on the new acquisition, Prashant Jhawar, Vice Chairman of the Group, said: "Our strategy is to continually develop and diversify our business operations globally and we see the BPO market as having high growth potential.

"To exploit this opportunity, we are investing in both new and existing international locations and plan to build facilities for a total of 2,000 contact centre seats globally (both on-shore and off-shore) that will meet the demands from major blue chip organisations and give them the choice of leveraging domestic and overseas BPO capabilities".

There are also close synergies between the group's existing telecoms and software business and Converso, that will further augment the delivery of end-to-end customer care and billing solutions, and other back office services to the group's existing customers of over 75 mobile network operators and mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) worldwide, including South African operators MTN and Vodacom.

The Usha Martin Group currently employs 4,000 people in India and more than 600 people in other locations around the world.

The partnership with Converso will retain and expand Converso's existing Southend operation of 230 employees, and develop the 'Converso Contact Centres' name into an international brand.

The group's existing offices in South Africa and India will be used as the basis for building further BPO facilities.

Nalin Tikkoo, Director Mergers and Acquisitions, explained why they chose Converso: "We looked at a number of potential acquisition targets in the UK, some of them very large.

"However, Converso's impressive client list, strong financial services pedigree and an entrepreneurial spirit that closely matched our own business culture made Converso the ideal partner.

"Furthermore, we could see a high growth potential for Converso - the company is already a well-respected and established brand in the UK, but additional investment will take the company to the next level.

"We plan to use the UK operation as our headquarters and flagship organisation for BPO business worldwide, using this model as a 'blueprint' for our future international centres".

One of Converso's founding directors, Dino Forte, said: "This is great news for our customers, staff and for UK job creation generally, so everybody gains from this new partnership.

"Our goal from the outset was to develop a major BPO and contact centre business that could offer our clients a full on-shore and off-shore service with access to significant dedicated resources.

"This acquisition will enable the company to achieve this objective far sooner than we could do through organic growth alone and at a time when the market is crying out for new capacity.

"With this investment we expect to create over 400 new jobs in the UK and quadruple annual revenues within three years".

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