India's CRISIL Buys KPO Firm

Indian research and risk advisory firm CRISIL has agreed to purchase KPO company Pipal Research Corporation, for $US 12.75m.

CRISIL's majority shareholder is Standard & Poor's, itself a subsidiary of The McGraw-Hill Companies, which also owns automotive research giant J.D. Power and Associates.

Pipal is headquartered in Chicago with Indian research centres in Gurgaon, Noida and Bangalore. The company provides business and investment research services to global clients in the telecoms, technology, CPG, industrial and financial services sectors. Majority-owned by Firstsource Solutions Ltd, it reported $US 8.1m of revenue for the financial year ended March 31, 2010.

CRISIL has its own division focused on Knowledge Process Outsourcing, Irevna, which provides high-end research and analytical services to top banks and other financial heavyweights from bases in Chennai, Mumbai, Buenos Aires and Wroclaw (Poland). An additional research centre will soon be launched in China. The firms say the combined Irevna-Pipal 'will be uniquely positioned in the high-end analytical offshoring space with the widest range of services, geographic locations, and customer diversity.'

CRISIL MD and CEO Roopa Kudva says the two organisations have complementary strengths and the deal will enable the firm to further strengthen its leadership position in the high-end KPO space. According to Manoj Jain, Pipal's founder and Chairman, 'CRISIL is the perfect choice for maximizing the full potential of this business, providing growth opportunities to our people and benefiting our clients.'

Web site: www.crisil.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.