Continuing its acquisition spree, Essar group's Aegis BPO Services entered into an agreement with AOL on March 31, to acquire its call centre unit in Bangalore for an undisclosed amount.

The deal will be completed by the end of April.

This is the eighth buyout of Essar's back-office unit over the last two years and will add 1,000-plus employees to its existing staff strength of 19,000.

The sellout is part of Time Warner Inc's global internet services and media company's strategy to exit non-core businesses and concentrate on core businesses.

Aegis managing director and CEO Aparup Sengupta said the deal with AOL was value accretive and gives them competitive edge to manage their customers.

"The deal is economically rewarding and expands our client base as millions of subscribers of AOL across all its centres will now be serviced by us," said Sengupta.

He said Aegis would continue to look out for more opportunity to grow its business both organically and inorganically in the US, Europe and other geographies.

"There is no budget constraint. Essar has enough resources to expand its business organically and inorganically," said Sengupta.

The Rs 800-crore ($200-million) BPO, which is growing at a CAGR of 35-45%, is not worried about the US slowdown.

"Owing to the lagging impact of what is happening in the US, there is more offshoring opportunity as customers are the last to be left out," said Sengupta.

Source: DNA MONEY