Akshaya Bhargava to head 3i's new focus on BPO market

Mumbai, May 8: Venture capital and private equity major 3i has appointed Mr Akshaya Bhargava to head its new focus on the USD 170-billion global BPO market.

Mr Bhargava, an ex-banker, has spent 22 years with Citibank in a variety of senior positions in India, the Czech Republic and the UK and until recently, he was the CEO of Progeon, the BPO subsidiary of Infosys.

Mr Bhargava has been charged with the mandate of building up a new team to focus on a two-pronged strategy of identifying attractive investment opportunities and leveraging offshore BPO for its portfolio companies, stated a Company release, adding that ''3i will initially focus on companies with minimum revenues of Euro 100 million in the financial services sector in the UK, Germany, the USA and India, which can provide the platform to build next generation BPO leaders of tomorrow.'' 3i's new BPO team will focus on private equity opportunities which may be buy-outs with a value up to USD 1 billion or growth capital investments up to USD 150 million where it will typically invest in profitable companies that manage the traditional back-office functions of finance, accounting, HR and procurement services as well as specialist sector outsourcing.

UNI