June 26, 2006

TransWorks, the BPO (business process outsourcing) arm of the Aditya Birla Group of India, has acquired all outstanding shares of Minacs, a Canadian BPO specialist for the sum of $125 million.

Minacs has a contact center service, but the company also offers marketing services and back office administration.

It claims business across six major industries: automotive (the company is a past GM 'supplier of the year'), consumer products, financial services, public sector, telecommunications, and technology. Contact centers are the big play for Minacs, contributing 67 percent of revenue.

By contrast, back office administration contributes 18 percent, and integrated marketing 15 percent.

Minacs' 35 current job openings are all for positions in Canada (which accounts for 46 percent of company revenue) and the U.S. (49 percent of revenue) The company also has a presence in Europe, where its headquarters are in Germany. Minacs has 5,000 employees.

The interesting thing about the acquisition is that Minacs is bringing much more to the table, in terms of revenue, than legacy TransWorks. Minacs does about $260 million in revenue versus $35 from revenue. That said, TransWorks is part of a much bigger business empire, with the Birla Group doing $7.6 billion in annual revenue.

The normal pattern has been for U.S.-based companies to expand their BPO footprint by acquiring an Indian company.

As far as we are aware, this is the first deal in which an Indian company has expanded its BPO footprint so radically by acquiring a North American company.

Source: Line 56.