Agency news
 
New Delhi, Mar 7: MNCs setting up offshore business units in India for saving costs is an old story. The latest trend is to hive off their Indian units with over two dozen MNCs considering to sell off of their BPO units in the country through a gradual process of exiting.

While British Airways was among the first to spin off its Indian outsourcing unit in 2002, which is today known as WNS Holdings, this trend is catching up fast with the global companies operating in India.

US conglomerate General Electric (GE) sold off its Indian outsourcing operations about two years ago for about $500 million, London-based United Utilities sold its Vertex unit last year, while global PC giant Hewlett-Packard is also expected to follow the suit.

At least over two dozen of firms are evaluating options to sell off their Indian outsourcing units through a gradual exit process, global technology research firm Forrester's India head and Senior analyst Sudin Apte told media.

While all may not go for straight forward sell off, most firms will opt for soft way, part outsource first and increase that share over the period, and this trend is already happening in the industry, Apte said.

According to Forrester, if the size of company's own facility is small with up to 100 employees, then it is actually counter productive, with savings in staffing costs getting over shadowed by management overhead. And if size becomes too big, over 3,000 people, then the issues of people, processes and costs emerge, which are time consuming.