INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - JUNE - JULY - 2007
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GENPACT ACQUIRES AXIS RISK CONSULTING

GENPACT, the largest BPO in the country, has announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Axis Risk Consulting Services for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition is expected to be closed in the next 60-90 days, subject to necessary regulatory approvals.

Axis Risk Consulting Services provides risk assurance services, including internal audit, business performance improvement, Sarbanes-Oxley documentation and compliance testing and enterprise risk management. It has over 80 clients in India, North America, Europe and Asia and offices in Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi.

The acquisition expands Genpact's finance and accounting (F&A) solutions that include outsourced transactional services and financial planning and analysis. "The integrated risk and technology solutions we will be offering our US and European clients after this acquisition will remove a lot of time, pain and costs associated with governance and risk management," said Genpact president & CEO Pramod Bhasin.

Post-acquisition, Axis will operate as an independent unit of Genpact within its governance practice. Axis managing director and founding partner Ameet Parikh will lead the governance business unit.

"We find great synergy between the companies in terms of Genpact's access to global customers and our deep domain knowledge and experience in providing best-in-class risk consulting services," said Mr. Parikh.

The acquisition, Genpact said, will enable it to offer end-to-end internal audit service solutions by combining its own process and technology expertise with Axis' audit staff and automated control testing. "It will be a high-end extension to our F&A vertical," said Genpact senior vice-president Anil Nayar, who heads the F&A vertical.

F&A is the largest vertical for Genpact that also caters to insurance, manufacturing and transportation verticals. The BPO plans to raise up to $600 million with a listing at the New York Stock Exchange. It had about $613 million in revenue and $39.8 million in profits in 2006-07.