Intelenet Global Services, the equal joint venture between Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) and Tata Consultancy Services, a division of Tata Sons, is set to see a change in ownership structure.
It is believed that in a major shift in strategy, HDFC may buy out Tata Sons stake in Intelenet Global Services. Earlier, TCS was mulling the idea of buying out the equal partner's stake.
Industry sources said that this is a shift in strategy as TCS was keen to increase its holding in the business process outsourcing company as part of the overall consolidation exercise of its BPO outfits.
Both the parties had been in talks for quite some time but the deal was delayed on the price issue. It is learnt that HDFC has made a counter offer to buy out the TCS stake at a higher price.
"With the proposed takeover of Intelenet, HDFC had shelved its plan to set up a international call centre facility in joint venture with a foreign partner," sources added.
A HDFC spokesperson said, "Discussions are going on between both parties but no deal has been yet stuck."
Set up in 2000, Intelenet offers a range of IT-enabled services which include contact centres, transaction processing, accounting services and technical support in various verticals such as banking, financial, and insurance.
Its clients include the US-based Household Financial Services, Financial Group, Standard Life Health Care, AT&T and the UK-based National Rail Enquiry Services. Intelenet reported a total income of Rs 117.21 crore (Rs 1.172 billion) in 2003-04, higher than Rs 21.75 crore (Rs 217.5 billion) in the previous year.
Intelenet has six delivery centres with 2 facilities in Mumbai, Chennai, US, Canada and UK. It currently has 4,000 employees on its roll. The total investment in all these facilities has been over Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.50 billion).
There is a change in gameplan as TCS has been in the process of consolidating its BPO business.
It had in March this year bought out its joint venture partner Singapore Airlines in Aviation Software Development Consultancy.
Last year, it had acquired Swissair's stake of 75.1 per cent in Airline Financial Support Services to convert it into a wholly owned subsidiary. ASDC provides consultancy and solutions to the aviation industry while AFS caters to the airline and hospitality industries.