Warburg Pincus, the global PE firm, which seems to have already recovered the invested amount in WNS post NYSE listing, is now planning to offload the remaining 29% stake in the company.

Carlyle and Baring PE are touted to pick up its stake, according to ET.

Warburg had bought a majority stake (64.7%) in the BPO firm in 2002 from its promoter British Airways for $40 Mn. This was followed by a series of stake sales which included stake cut through IPO and the latest follow-on ADS offering (worth $110 Mn) earlier this year bringing its holding to 29%.

However, if the deal with the PE players does not go through than Warburg would look to sell its entire stake to the public in tranches (it holds the flexibility of doing so without new prospectus issue as it had filed a universal shelf registration with the SEC).

Back in 2009 (a period when clouds of recession were looming over financial majors), Blackstone and rival BPO firms Genpact and EXL Services (backed by Apax Partners ) were also in the running to bid for Warburg’s stake in WNS (in a bidding process that involved names like Bain Capital, Silverlake and Citigroup Venture Capital).

Headquartered in Mumbai and incorporated in Jersey, Channel Islands, WNS is a global BPO firm driven by CEO Keshav Murugesh.

It started as a British Airways’ back office operation in 1996 in Mumbai with less than 300 employees and currently has over 200 global clients offering services in industry verticals like travel, insurance, banking & financial services, manufacturing, retail and consumer packaged goods, healthcare and utilitites among others.

The company has more than 25,000 employees across 30 delivery centers worldwide including Costa Rica, India, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Sri Lanka, U.K and U.S.

Where Baring already has a presence in the BPO segment with Mphasis Ltd., Carlyle sold its 65% stake in the Chennai publishing BPO – Newgen Knowledge Works last year.

Baring Asia along with Malaysian sovereign fund Khazanah were in discussions to buy out Essar-owned Aegis BPO but talks collapsed on valuation differences.

One of the biggest deals in the space this year was Bain Capital buying a 30% stake in Genpact for $1 Bn.

This was followed by RP-Sanjiv Goenka diversifying its operations by acquiring Firstsource Solutions, another pure-play BPO firm.

TA Associate was also acquiring a controlling stake in Omega Healthcare Management Services, a healthcare BPO for R530 Cr.

India is among the world’s most favored nation for outsourcing (accounting for around 37% of global outsourcing activities) which is currently facing political backlash from the West.

Despite this, it is projected to grow at around 15% in the coming decade.

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