Buyers line up for Citi's BPO biz

Our Corporate Bureau
24 May 2007

Mumbai: The first round of bidding for Citigroup Global Services (formerly known as e-Serve) which is Citi's BPO arm, is likely to be over this week. IBM, Automatic Data Processing (ADP), Genpact, Infosys and private equity firms such as Blackstone and General Atlantic are vying to buy a stake in Citi's BPO business.

However, Citi is likely to sell off over 50 per cent stake in the BPO firm and may retain a part of the stake in the firm so it can not only get the benefits in case of a future listing but can also handhold the firm.

According to sources, one of the main reasons that the group is looking at bringing in a strategic partner is to bring down the overall costs and not monetising the stake.

The group is most likely to sell the operations to an operator who has experience in the field and would want to be a strategic partner in the firm. ADP and Genpact are said to be the front runners for the deal.

Citi which held 44.4 per cent stake in the BPO company had delisted it in 2004 and accepted an exit price of Rs 975 per share while delisting. At that price, the company was valued at around Rs 1,200 crore.