An offshoring superpower has been created with French IT services giant Steria’s acquisition of UK outsourcing firm Xansa for £456m.
Xansa, which has increasingly won contracts offshoring jobs including HR positions, now has more than 5,000 employees in India. It provides back-office functions for organisations such as the BBC, Threshers and Lloyds TSB.
Steria, which recorded revenues of around £900m last year and has more than 10,000 employees, is one of the biggest European IT services companies.
Xansa chairman Bill Alexander said: “We are confident that our recommendation is in the best interests of Xansa shareholders and offers an opportunity for our employees to be part of a culturally-aligned, pan-European company able to leverage our integrated onshore/offshore model.
“The combination of our two businesses will create a leading European IT services provider, able to offer our clients a broader range of market-leading services.”
Xansa’s annual report showed that it had 5,038 workers in India in April 2007, compared with 3,920 the year before. The number of UK staff at the company fell by 208 during the same period to 3,586.
