Firstsource Solutions transitioning from being a BPO player to a platform player: Sanjiv Goenka

ET Now: Sometimes I feel that the stock markets obsession with quarterly performance clouds the bigger things which are happening at the company level. What are the big trends which are happening at the company?

Sanjiv Goenka: We are in the process of transitioning from being a BPO player to being a platform and transformation player. This quarter 17% of the wins we had were from digital. A year ago we did not have digital at all. We have just won a very major contract in the healthcare space. It is the largest deal that has been struck in the sector. It is a $210-million deal, which we, along with our partner, had bid for. Our share is about $110 million and we have won this in face of competition from TCS, Infosys etc. It was a little bit like a David versus Goliath kind of a competition. So this is the first major win against the biggies that we have had.

It is the beginning of a transformation and transformation is not easy but it is something that is happening very definitely. It is beginning to manifest in the revenue mix, wins mix and in the way we are viewed by our clients. We expect a much greater impact of this transformation and the transition to being a platform play will be visible from Q4 of this year onwards.

You have announced the acquisition of the StoneHill Group. How much have you paid for it and is it value accretive? What kind of strategic benefits do you draw from this transaction?

We have paid eight times EBITDA first for StoneHill. So we have paid $27 million of which 80% gets paid now, 20% depends on performance over the next 12 months. The current profit of StoneHill is $2.3 million on a net basis, we expect this to grow to at least $7.5 million in the next four years. Our existing business in mortgages is largely onshore. This is predominantly offshore.

We believe that there is an opportunity to cross sell to the existing Firstsource mortgage consumer as well as the existing StoneHill consumers, so cross linkage of the onshore and offshore and that can be an additional business. We expect to be bottom line accretive and value accretive. This is very complimentary to our current business and this is in the space of mortgage QC which is a different space for us. It should add value to our clients and to our business.

How meaningful would this value add be and by which quarter would you start seeing the full benefits or synergies of this transaction?
By the time we complete the transaction and everything gets done and the licences get transferred, we are looking at probably December. Give it one or two quarters thereafter for the cross benefits to start flowing in. But as I said, Q4 onwards, we expect to see a significant reflection of what we have been doing in terms of transformation within the company.