Outsourcing firm WNS fields takeover interest, sources say

WNS Holdings, a know-how outsourcing providers agency with a market worth of $2.8 billion, is exploring a sale after attracting acquisition interest from potential suitors together with Capgemini, in line with folks acquainted with the matter.

WNS, which traces its roots to India, is working with its funding bankers at JPMorgan Chase to judge its talks with events, which embrace French know-how group Capgemini and different rival data technology services corporations, the sources mentioned, requesting anonymity because the discussions are confidential.

If the talks are profitable, a deal may very well be signed within the coming weeks, the sources mentioned, cautioning that the deliberations are fluid and WNS might select to not proceed with a transaction. WNS shares jumped greater than 14% on the information to the touch a 52-week excessive on Tuesday, earlier than paring some beneficial properties.

WNS, Capgemini, and JPMorgan declined to remark.

WNS, which is led by IT providers trade veteran Keshav Murugesh, was launched in 1996 by British Airways in Mumbai as a subsidiary to handle the back-office know-how operations of the airline. WNS was carved out as an unbiased firm in 2002 after personal fairness agency Warburg Pincus took a majority stake within the enterprise.

It offers providers together with enterprise course of outsourcing and knowledge analytics, and its prospects embrace massive organizations resembling Coca-Cola, T-Cellular, and United Airways.

WNS primarily competes towards bigger software program exporters resembling Cognizant and Genpact, which make use of 1000’s of engineers in low-cost areas like India for software program code writing and utility upkeep. WNS just lately acquired Houston-based Kipi.ai, an analytics and synthetic intelligence providers vendor, because it appears to faucet into the growth in demand for AI providers. For the quarter ended Dec. 31, WNS reported income of $333 million, up from $326.2 million a yr earlier, whereas its revenue rose to $48.6 million from $41.5 million. The corporate’s shares have risen almost 30% since its newest quarterly outcomes got here according to market expectations, following six consecutive quarters of disappointing outcomes.