Software News South Africa

Aegis acquires Call Centre Nucleus

South Africa's Call Centre Nucleus group has been fully acquired by Aegis, India's business process outsourcing arm of the diversified Essar group, it was announced yesterday 9 July 2009. The company says the purchase of CCN is a part of its strategy to invest R500 million in next three years and create 5000 jobs in South Africa.

Aegis is a part of the Essar Group, one of India's largest and fastest growing business conglomerates. It says it promises to be South Africa's cheerleaders in its bid to attract key global investors into the country, because according to Aparup Sengupta, global CEO and MD of Aegis, South Africa as one of the leading economies in Africa has an ability to attract large international companies who have been wanting to come into the country but were scared to do so because of the small size of the call centre industry in the country.

“CCN is a strategic fit for Aegis. This combined entity will offer CCN's clients and prospects an expanded set of solutions and services from a broader geographic delivery platform. South Africa becomes an integral part of our growth strategy and offers an opportunity for Aegis to develop skills, create employment and bring in international experience to South Africa. This is a step towards our commitment to creating 5000 jobs in South Africa over a period of time,” says Sengupta.

Sandip Sen, the global chief marketing officer and head of sales for Aegis, said “We saw a good synergy in CCN and Aegis culture. We share a similar passion to deliver high-quality services and are delighted to integrate CCN with Aegis.”

“We are putting in significant amount of our overall South Africa planned investment of R500 million into this acquisition. This is our way of demonstrating long-term commitment to this market place. The clients will benefit from greater scale, deeper domain expertise, comprehensive and flexible solution offerings, robust financial strength, and a rich international talent pool,” says Sen.

The company says it will be bringing a specialised customer lifecycle management solutions as well as create a good training engine in South Africa. The CCN buyout is Aegis' 12th acquisition, the next one is UCMS in Australia is still awaiting regulatory approval for closing.

About Tshepiso Seopa

Tshepiso Seopa was a junior journalist at Bizcommunity.com.
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