Aparup Sengupta exits Essar's BPO unit, Aegis

Aparup Sengupta, CEO and MD of Essar Group’s business process outsourcing (BPO) arm Aegis for the past eight years, has decided to end his innings at the BPO. Sengupta is moving to a different role in the group.

The exit assumes significance, as the promoters have been looking at diluting their stake in the BPO business and appointed bankers to explore a possible sale.

In an email reply, the Essar group confirmed the move: “Aparup Sengupta is taking up another role within Essar and would continue to be part of the Essar Group. Aparup is moving on from an active operational role at Aegis to a role within Essar Group. He has been instrumental in growing Aegis to become a $1-billion company spread across five continents.”

After Sengupta’s move, the BPO operations will be managed by an executive committee consisting of Sandip Sen, CEO-CLM Business,

C M Sharma, global CFO and head back office business, S K Jha, CEO-Technology business, V Nandakumar, CEO-engineering services business, and S M Gupta, chief people officer.

“Aegis has a rich leadership team run by industry-renowned professionals with deep domain expertise. Upon Aparup’s moving to his new role in Essar, Aegis will be managed through an Executive Committee,” said the group spokesperson.

According to industry observers, the exit points to a possible stake sale in the near future. “It means the talks are now taking shape and his exit is quite significant in that respect,” said a banker. The company said: “We would not like to comment on market speculations.”

In an earlier interaction with Business Standard, Sengupta had said that he was in talks with private equity and financial investors, as promoter Essar Group was keen to dilute its stake. “Over a period of time, they might exit the company and may want to focus on their core business. But the exit will depend on the value that they get,” Sengupta had said.

Aegis’s revenues stood at $1 billion as of March 2012. Sengupta had charted a roadmap for the company to reach a revenue target of $2 billion by 2014-15. He has been responsible to grow the group’s revenue through inorganic route in the initial years.

Source: Business standard