Aditya Birla Minacs Acquires UK Based Compass BPO

Strengthens F&A Capabilities; Adds Domain Expertise in End to End Accounting Services and Business Solutions

LONDON and TORONTO, March 9 /CNW/ - Aditya Birla Minacs, a global business solutions company, today announced the acquisition of UK-based Compass BPO Ltd, a leading pure-play end-to-end Finance and Accounting (F&A) services provider.

Compass BPO has appeared in the top 15 upcoming F&A BPO players in a recent Gartner(TM) report. It was also cited in the Top Offshore BPO providers by FAO Today magazine(TM), and in the 'Global Services 100 - 2008 list' by NeoIT(TM) and Global Services(TM).

Through this acquisition, Minacs will take over all the operations of Compass across the UK, US, Middle East and in India, bringing Minacs' F&A employee strength to 600. The founders of Compass - David McCullough and Mark Atkins - will join Minacs' management.

This announcement comes close on the heels of Minacs' recent inauguration of its new Global F&A Center of Excellence in Chennai. Its end to end F&A services portfolio now includes transactional accounting, knowledge based services (e.g. financial planning and analysis, research, budgeting/ forecasting and reporting), risk support services, business solutions (implementation and Hosting/DBA services) and IT-based financial solutions and services.

Commenting on the deal, Deepak Patel, CEO - Aditya Birla Minacs says, "With Compass forming the core of Aditya Birla Minacs F&A, we are now strongly positioned to be an integral part of our clients' core processes. Compass is already a highly respected force in the F&A space with the full spectrum of capabilities. With 10 years of operations, it has excellent client credentials, a highly qualified team, and strong domain expertise. This move is part of our strategic roadmap, and brings to Minacs significant credibility in the fast growing F&A business."

David McCullough, CEO - Compass BPO said, "We at Compass are excited at the opportunities for accelerating growth by leveraging Minacs' global platform. Our best-in-class F&A expertise and value-added business solutions will bring great advantages to Minacs' Fortune 500 client base. We are also delighted to be part of a team that is known for its heritage of long term partnerships with clients."

Minacs has invested significantly in developing new capabilities in the recent past. F&A is a key focus area, including deployment of proprietary point solutions, which integrate with any ERP, allowing easy F&A process transition, client control and transparency. Similarly, Compass BPO provides business intelligence solutions for financial analysis and reporting enabling clients to make quick and informed business decisions.

About Aditya Birla Minacs

Aditya Birla Minacs is a pioneering business solutions company that partners with global corporations in BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance), TIME (telecom, technology infrastructure, media, and entertainment), manufacturing and the public sector. We leverage years of process, domain and technology expertise to deliver superior business value to clients with our seamless customer lifecycle and enterprise services. 13,000 Minacs experts across 3 continents and 29 centers spanning Canada, Germany, Hungary, India, Philippines, the UK and USA power our solutions through a global delivery model that helps our clients enhance revenues, profitability and customer service.

Minacs is a subsidiary of Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd.

Visit http://www.minacs.adityabirla.com for more information.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. We may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in our filings with the regulators in India and to our reports to shareholders. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by us or on our behalf.

    
    For further information contact:

    Anil Bhalla
    Aditya Birla Minacs, Toronto
    [phone]
    [email protected]

    Shiwani Varma Vyas
    Aditya Birla Minacs, Bangalore
    [phone]
    [email protected]

    Anya G. D'Souza
    Corporate Voice Weber Shandwick
    [phone]
    [email protected]
    

For further information: Anil Bhalla, Aditya Birla Minacs, Toronto, [phone], [email protected]; Shiwani Varma Vyas, Aditya Birla Minacs, Bangalore, [phone], [email protected]; Anya G. D'Souza, Corporate Voice Weber Shandwick, [phone], [email protected]