Merrill Lynch subsidiary invests $30 million in Scandent Solutions

Mumbai: Indopark Holdings Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Merrill Lynch & Co has invested $30 million (Rs 133.65 crore) in IT firm Scandent Solutions, a broad based IT services company that offers business consulting, application implementation, software engineering, maintenance and support services.

Scandent Solutions, which was recently named one of the top three performing BPOs by Global Services media and offshore outsourcing advisory firm neoIT, is due to merge with its BPO arm, Cambridge Integrated Services. The investment, in the form of convertible bonds (CB), carries a coupon of 5.22 per cent per annum.

The CBs will be converted into common shares of Scandent Solutions at a price of Rs 217 per share. Post the merger and conversion of the CB's. Indopark Holdings' stake in the merged entity will be around 5.55 per cent.

"We are very pleased to have a global leader like Merrill Lynch invest in our company," said Chris Sinclair, executive chairman and CEO of Scandent Solutions. "This investment is vindication of the potential that our merger with Cambridge holds for the company and will fund our growth in an exciting and expanding outsourcing market-place."

Post its merger with Cambridge, Scandent will have combined revenues of close to $275 million a year, more than 3,500 employees, 80 offices on four continents, and more than 2,000 clients. Scandent says its client base include Fortune 500 firms such as Bally Total Fitness, Corporate Express, DHL, John Deere, NASDAQ, Southwest Airlines and SWIFT (both US and international), state governments including the State of Tennessee, and Victoria and New South Wales (Australia) Work Cover Authorities; and international financial services companies including American Express, Bank of America, Citibank, JP Morgan and Lehman Brothers.