Tracmail sets up new JV for call centre operations

By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 14 October 2003, 19:30 IST
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MUMBAI: Voice and e-mail management call centre company Tracmail on Monday said it would merge its call centre operations with that of Webhelp, a privately-held, US-based business process outsourcing firm, and that of Spherenomics Global Contact Centers to form TWS Holdings. Investors in the merged entity, TWS Holdings, would include CIBC World Markets and Insight Capital Partners, besides View group, eTec Ventures and Tracmail Inc promoter Adi Cooper. Tracmail’s former investors, Viewgroup, eTec Ventures and the firms’ promoters, held 40%, 30% and 30% respectively. The shareholding pattern post merger is not known. Tracmail’s investors hold equity stakes in similar proportions in the 51% held by the firm in its joint venture with Stream (which is now a part of Solectron). According to Tracmail chairman, Adi Cooper, “The acquisition of Webhelp and Spherenomics will help the firm achieve scale, diversified service offerings, additional customers, redundancy and near-shore offshore facilities.” Rakesh Kaul, chairman of Spherenomics will be the CEO of the merged entity, while Mr Cooper, the founder and chairman of Tracmail will be the chairman, a note issued by the firm said. Additional capital from new shareholders is expected to flow in, and Tracmail’s promoters are likely to exit the firm over a period of time, industry sources indicated. “The firms’ promoters were looking to raise money from new investors. They may move out after putting in a small amount of investment, generating new revenue streams for the business,” sources said. Tracmail Inc, the holding company with 100% equity participation in Tracmail, undertakes activities such as order entry and accounts processing. These are outside the purview of the services undertaken for its joint venture with Stream. Tracmail’s call centre work is undertaken at its New Mumbai facility, which has a capacity of over 700 seats and employs about 1,000 people. Tracmail (along with its joint venture entity) posted combined revenues of $7m during fiscal ’01-02. Revenues for the ’02-03 fiscal were not available.