Global-O&O

SOURCE: Press Release
DATE: August 12th, 2008
Greater Pacific Capital (GPC), a London-based strategic investment firm & Azure Knowledge Corporation Pvt Ltd announced today the strategic investment by GPC in Azure, a leading ITES player in the country and the largest BPO and KPO in the state of Gujarat.

In line with its investment model based on identifying and taking stake in strong, high potential public and private companies in the highest growth industries within India and China, Greater Pacific Capital is poised to enhance Azure’s position as a specialist company in the two most upcoming and promising domains - financial services and knowledge-based customer interaction services. Greater Pacific Capital will invest USD 32.5 million in Azure over the next 12-18 months, the biggest investment in a 3rd party KPO in western India till date, fuelling Azure’s appetite for inorganic growth. This is following Azure’s successful acquisition of 49% stake in US based Citizens Financial Mortgage, Inc. in April 2008.

Joe Sealy, Co-Founder-Promoter of GPC and former Managing Director in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs will join the Azure board along with Pradeep Udhas, Managing Director GPC, India and former Global Partner-in-charge Sourcing Advisory Services with KPMG. The current promoters of Azure, Dushyant Joshi and Jay Ruparel, will continue to hold majority stake in the company with participation of GPC being in an investment and strategic advisory capacity.

“We have been growing at more than 200% over the last two years and to sustain this growth rate and help us with our inorganic growth plans, we were looking for capital infusion from an investor that would add strategic and intellectual value along with financial investment” said Dushyant Joshi, the founder and CEO of Azure, adding that Greater PacificCapital will bring in a lot of visibility and significant board level guidance to drive Azure’s future growth plans.

“We are excited at the opportunity to work with Azure,” stated Joe Sealy, Founding Partner and Managing Director of Greater Pacific Capital. “Dushyant Joshi and his team at Azure have built and led a very successful and high growth business by focusing on delivering value to customers through long term partnerships and the application of superior technology. Given the strength of the Azure’s management team across the business, the company is well positioned to exploit the knowledge process outsourcing opportunities internationally.”

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Azure is an ISO 27001 Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) and IT solutions company with 2200 people based out of its centers in Ahmedabad, Pune, Guangzhou and Philadelphia serving 75 countries in 15 international languages. Co-founded by Dushyant Joshi and Jay Ruparel, Azure has been ranked among the Top 40 IT/ITES companies of India by Dun & Bradstreet in 2007 and among the 50 Best Workplaces to work in India 2008 by the Great Place to Work Institute. In May 2008, Azure successfully acquired 49% stake in Citizens Financial Mortgage Inc. Among other awards, Azure has been the recipient of the Best Customer Responsiveness Practice award by Avaya Global Connect as adjudged by AC Nielsen and E&Y, the best KPO Company and the largest employment generator company in Gujarat as awarded by GESIA.

About Greater Pacific Capital

Greater Pacific Capital is a leading investment firm designed to capture the opportunity of high growth in the Indian and Chinese economies. The company focuses on creating proprietary special situations based on a distinctive sourcing and execution formula that combines strategic ideas, relationships and capital. With an investment model that identifies influential positions in high potential public and private companies in the highest growth industries, Greater Pacific Capital aims at building long-term partnerships with their clients’ management teams to achieve a step-change in the value of their businesses.

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