Aegis, STC ink US$2 billion deal

Aegis, a part of the Essar Group, recently signed a $2-billion deal with Saudi Telecom Company, in which the global outsourcing services company will manage the customer care operations of the largest telecom operator in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The joint venture, Contact Centre Company, will be near-equally owned by the two arms, with 50{e1f18614b95d3cd6e4b3128e1cd15d99b042a60a5a19c19b7a8e07e7495efa10} plus one share being held by STC and the rest under Aegis, which will have operational control and responsibilities.
Aegis, which serves more than 150 clients in different sectors such as healthcare, travel and hospitality and consumers goods across 11 countries, is now ready to serve 28 million telecom customers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The company’s job will include taking care of telecom customers’ billing, collection, verification and answering to their directory enquiries.
“We are happy to have found an able partner in Aegis, who, we are confident, will provide a great deal of satisfaction to our valued customers, given their vast experience in managing customer experience across multiple geographies,” said Saud Al Daweesh, Group CEO of STC.
In the first phase, the Saudi Telecom will transfer 550 agents across two centres, providing directory assistance to the joint venture and gradually in the next two years, Aegis family will absorb the remaining 4,500 STC agents. Aparup Sengupta, MD and global CEO of Aegis, said, “We have the aspirations of making this the largest BPO operations in the region.” Aegis is looking at consolidating its stake in the JV.