Sutherland Global Services to acquire Apollo Health Street

US-based BPO company Sutherland Global Services today said it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Apollo Health Street Ltd for an estimated Rs 1,000 crore.

"The acquisition will help Sutherland consolidate its services portfolio across payer, provider and health IT services. It will also strengthen Sutherland's presence in the USD 38-billion US Healthcare BPO market," Sutherland Global Services Founder Chairman and CEO Dilip Vellodi told PTI.

Apollo Health is US-based unlisted associate company of Chennai-based Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Ltd.

Although the company refused to divulge the financials, according to sources the deal-size is Rs 1,000 crore and Sutherland Global Services pipped BPO giant Genpact, who was also in the fray, for the deal.

The all cash transaction is expected to close by February 2013, subject to customary regulatory and other conditions.

"The acquisition will bring on board 3,200 professionals with deep industry knowledge," Vellodi said.

He added, "The combination of Sutherland's existing practice with Apollo's deep domain understanding and world- class platform-based delivery capabilities will provide effective solutions to challenges faced by healthcare Providers and Payers -- to provide exceptional service to patients in a cost effective manner".

With the completion of this acquisition, the company expects healthcare services to account for 15 per cent of overall revenues in the next fiscal. Sutherland expects to close the next financial year with revenues of USD 900 million.

Post the acquisition, Sutherland with have over 200 clients across various verticals, including healthcare, banking and financial services, retail and telecom.

Apollo Health Street Managing Director Sangita Reddy said, "We are pleased that a strategic player like Sutherland Global Services has acquired Apollo Health Street and will expand and enhance our successful operations while leveraging its global reach."

Sutherland has over 30,000 employees globally working out of 35 operations centers in the US, Philippines, India, UAE, Egypt, Bulgaria, UK, Canada, Jamaica, Mexico, and Colombia.

Apollo Health Street provides customised strategic support services to more than 150 healthcare partners throughout the US from 10 global operational centers of excellence.
Apollo's global clients will now be able to leverage Sutherland's secure and scalable global infrastructure with full access to Sutherland's suite of analytics-enabled services, the company said.

Sutherland will utilise Apollo's domain driven technology, best practices, and global resources to expand and secure its leadership position by providing integrated solutions to address the challenges and opportunities in the healthcare market as well as complex compliance and regulatory mandates, it added.