Buyout offers reported for Cambridge Solutions
The future may be in question for Cambridge Solutions Ltd.’s U.S. headquarters in Greenwich, as bidders in the firm’s home base of India put together buyout offers for the outsourcing firm.
Cambridge Solutions focuses on business-process outsourcing (BPO), services that allow corporate clients to rid themselves of performing mundane, transactional-based duties such as managing mortgage applications, medical billing or insurance claims processing.
The company employs more than 4,400 people in 80 locations and its marquee clients have included Citigroup, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. and the state of Massachusetts.
In the first three quarters of its fiscal year ending March 31, Cambridge Solutions produced a $12 million profit on $267 million in revenue, with roughly $216 million of that amount garnered from U.S. corporate customers.
Since reports first surfaced a month ago in the Indian publication Economic Times, Cambridge Solutions has been mum on reported negotiations involving the private equity firm Carlyle Group to buy out shares controlled by Chris Sinclair, the company’s executive chairman and chief executive officer who splits time between homes in Greenwich and Palm Beach, Fla. A Cambridge Solutions spokeswoman could not be reached for comment.
In 2005, Carlyle acquired a controlling stake in SS&C Technologies Inc., a Windsor-based company that sells financial and accounting software for hedge funds and other companies. SS&C, which also has a limited BPO business, has doubled the size of its employee base in two years to just above 900 total.
HCL Technologies, another Indian outsourcing company which has undertaken a number of information technology projects for the state of Connecticut, has also been mentioned in the Indian press as a possible buyer. HCL has an office in Farmington, Conn.
In just seven years, Cambridge Associates has built one of the best BPO brands in the business, placing 10th this year on the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals’ (IAOP) annual ranking of top outsourcing companies, which is regularly topped by IBM Corp. of Armonk, N.Y.
0 Comments