WNS Holdings, a Mumbai-based business-services company, is gearing up to gives U.S. investors a chance to place their bets on India's service industry. WNS will be the first firm solely focused on BPO services to go public, according to Ashish Thadhani, an analyst at Gilford Securities. Investors will have a chance to bet on a new sector of the outsourcing market when Indian firm WNS Holdings makes its market debut on the New York Stock Exchange this week. reportedly to sell about 10.4 million American Depositary Shares to underwriters.
WNS Holdings, which began operations in 1996 as a division of British Airways and incorporated in 2002, currently handles entire business functions like loan processing for banking clients and provides customer service for airlines as well. It serves customers in the travel, banking, financial services, insurance and health care industries mostly in the United States and the United Kingdom. The company has a diverse group of clients including Air Canada, British Airways , Virgin Atlantic Airways, FirstMangus Financial, IndyMac Bank, Tesco and Travelocity. In India, its competitors include Genpact, ExlService Holdings, Progeon (a division of Infosys Technologies), Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro BPO (a division of Wipro Technologies), while its US competitors include Accenture, Affiliated Computer Services, Electronic Data Services, and IBM.
"WNS would become the first pure-play in one of the fastest growing industries in India, which is one of the fastest growing economies today. That puts the importance of the offering in perspective," said Ashish Thadhani.
Many basic back-office operations can be handled more cheaply overseas, and inexpensive telecommunications makes it feasible for a client in the United States to talk to a customer-service representative in India. A report prepared by the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) estimates that the offshore business processing industry will grow at a compound annual rate of 37%, reaching USD 55 billion in fiscal year 2010 from the current USD 11.4 billion. The report estimates that companies based in India grabbed 46% of offshore business processing outsourcing revenue in 2005 and the nation will retain its dominant position for the foreseeable future. In India, the industry is expected to grow to USD 25 billion in 2010 from USD 5.2 billion in 2005. Retail banking, insurance, travel and hospitality are expected to offer potential for offshore outsourcing.
