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MUMBAI: Yellow Pages and Special interest magazine publishing major,
Infomedia India Ltd, today announced its plans to acquire UK based
Keyword Group Limited, a leading publishing BPO company and Cepha
Imaging Systems – a Bangalore based firm.
Infomedia will acquire 100% stake from the promoters of Keyword
Group. Keyword currently owns 49 % stake in Cepha Imaging Systems,
a Bangalore based firm. As part of the deal Infomedia will acquire
a further 21 % stake in Cepha from the local promoters, which will
progressively be increased to 100 % in the next two years
The deals, which are subject to necessary approvals, is estimated
to be about $ 7 million.
Mr Prakash Iyer, Managing Director, Infomedia India said “Keyword’s
strong customer connect and Cepha’s track record of consistently
delivering quality and exceeding customer expectations will help
us consolidate our position in the booming $250 million publishing
BPO market in India. We will now have a potent combination of a
customer-facing front-end in Europe, and a world class facility
in India”
The publishing BPO business is clocking an annual growth of 30
per cent in India with profit margins, which vary between 30-40
per cent, sources added.
Indian publishing BPO industry is currently focusing on the US
and UK markets. India with several advantages like trained professionals,
proficiency in English and favourable time zone is expected to emerge
as one of the main outsourcing centers for the developed world.
“Our experience in the Yellow Pages business and our familiarity
with printing and publishing have uniquely positioned us to partner
international publishers and offer them the India cost advantage.
The talent pool in India and our international footprint would enable
us to scale up and emerge as a dominant player in the Indian publishing
BPO space” Mr. Prakash Iyer added.
Globally, the publishing industry has undergone a spate of mergers
resulting in heavy consolidation and emergence of publishing giants
like Reed Elsevier and others. These conglomerates are keen to outsource
both low-end as well high-end publishing works to India. “We
expect this vertical to grow at a rapid pace in the coming years
as there is a long list of satisfied clients from the US and UK.
The trend would only increase in the coming years. They originally
came for price – but they’ve stayed for quality”,
said Prakash Iyer, managing director, Infomedia India Ltd.
Infomedia recently inked a 51-49 joint venture with Reed Business,
a member of the US$ 9 billion Reed Elsevier group to bring some
of its popular titles to India.
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