Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Financial service provider Citigroup has decided to acquire affiliate BPO firm E-Serve International in a Rs 550 crore bid for its publicly traded shares. Citigroup is E-Serve’s only customer and largest shareholder with 44.4 per cent of the mid-sized IT Enabled Services player’s listed shares.
E-Serve had, in fact, forayed into Indian BPO in 1999 using its affiliation with Citicorp. It supports Citigroup’s operations in 26 countries from its contact centres, two of which are in India at ‘Global Contact Centres’ based in Mumbai and Bangalore.
Citigroup said that the move would help further integrate its service and support lines globally. It would also provide shareholders an opportunity to exit from a ‘‘relatively illiquid investment’’, the company said.
The balance stake in E-Serve would cost Citibank Overseas Investment Corporation, the holding subsidiary of Citigroup, Rs 550 crore, at Rs 800 per share, which the company said was 27 per cent premium over E-Serve’s last closing on April 8 at Rs 630 per share.
The outstanding shares would be acquired through a shareholder-driven reverse book building process. E-Serve would be delisted from stock exchanges under the provisions of SEBI’s delisting guidelines, Citigroup said.
