Roy: Going great guns

Calcutta, Aug. 6: Raman Roy-led Quatrro BPO Solutions Pvt Ltd has placed bids of around $250 million to acquire three US-based companies.

The largest out of the three is a $150-million bid for a US company based in the West Coast that deals in mortgage.

“We have an acquisition kitty of $300 million and a separate team for mergers and acquisitions. We look at new areas for acquisitions like the buyout of UK-based Babel Media for specialised gaming services. The acquisition has made us the largest game testing company in the world,” said Raman Roy, chairman and managing director of Quatrro BPO Solutions.

None of the three companies for which Quatrro is bidding has a presence in India. Quatrro has tied up with two private equity players for the three bids.

The Babel Media deal, estimated at $100-150 million, was the sixth acquisition for Quatrro and funded through a mix of debt and equity. DE Shaw also picked up a small stake in Babel Media.

DE Shaw is the second investment firm after Olympus Capital to pick up a stake in Quatrro. Olympus Capital had picked up a minority stake in 2006 of about $100 million.

Quatrro employs 3,000 people in eight countries, of which 80 per cent are in India.

The BPO company has overseas centres in Brighton in the UK, Montreal, Chicago, San Francisco, Colombo and Shanghai. In India, Quatrro has centres in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.

It has identified mortgage, risk management, gaming services, legal process outsourcing and finance and accounting as key focus areas.