<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/57993095.cms" /> 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/small-business/companies/Indias-Essar-deal-with-Russias-Rosneft-does-not-violate-sanctions-by-the-US/articleshow/54901296.cms">Essar Group</a>, led by the influential <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/latest/Industrialist-Pawan-Ruiaarrested-on-charges-of-theft-of-railway-equipments-in-West-Bengal/articleshow/55920192.cms">Ruia </a>family, has announced the sale of its BPO company Aegis Ltd to private equity fund manager <keyword id="2038547" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Capital-Square-Partners">Capital Square Partners</keyword>, based in Singapore, thus exiting BPO business. 
 
The deal has been estimated to be worth $275 to 300 million. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Indias-biggest-deal-worth-Rs-72800-crores-Essar-oil-sellsto-Russias-Rosneft/articleshow/54877758.cms">India's biggest deal worth Rs 72,800 crores: Essar oil sells to Russia's Rosneft</a> 
 
Aegis had a global presence in the BPO business, with operations in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Australia, South Africa, Peru, Argentina, Saudi Arabia and the UK. With around 40,000 employees, it had 47 BPOs in these 10 countries and had $400 million worth of revenue. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/lic-wants-essar-to-clear-all-dues-to-give-noc-to-its-deal-with-rosneft/articleshow/57807554.cms">LIC wants Essar to clear all dues to give NOC to its deal with Rosneft</a> 
 
"AGC Holdings Ltd (AGC) Mauritius, a wholly-owned portfolio company of Essar Global Ltd, has entered into a definitive agreement with Capital Square Partners (CSP) to sell 100 per cent of its stake," said a statement from Essar. 
 
"Net proceeds of this sale will be used to retire Essar's debt," it added. 
 
It was in 2004 that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/enterprise/Essar-Oil-posts-record-Rs-1063-Crores-Q1-profit/articleshow/48269986.cms">Essar </a>had entered the BPO business after acquiring the US-based Aegis Communications Group, which it later sold in 2014. 
 
"This transaction is in line with our strategy of incubating, building and operating world-class businesses, and being open to monetising them at a premium value when the market conditions are favourable," said Uday Gujadhar, Director-AGC. 
 
(Image source The Indian )

Essar has sold Aegis to a Singaporean private investment firm

New Delhi, Mar 11 () The Ruia family-owned Essar Group has embarked on the final leg of its deleveraging exercise with plans to cut down its residual debt by 70 per cent to about Rs 12,000 crore as it looks to rebuild the conglomerate post-oil and steel business selloffs. From Rs 1.83 lakh crore of debt in FY17, the group brought down the debt by a staggering Rs 1.40 lakh crore over the last three years. Now it plans to cut residual debt from Rs 42,000 crore to about Rs 12,000 crore, according to a mailer Essar sent to policymakers and bureaucrats. Post the proposed reduction of debt in the power business by over 60 per cent (Rs 12,000 crore), and similar deleveraging across its portfolio businesses, Essar would have almost cleared all its long-term debts. The remaining indebtedness is for working capital in fully operational assets. The Group said it is "poised to embark on a new phase of growth while driving growth in its existing portfolio." Despite selling the oil refinery to Russia's Rosneft and partners and losing the steel business in insolvency proceedings, the group currently has interests in oil and gas, ports, power, shipping and mining projects in India and overseas that give revenue of Rs 1 lakh crore. Essar in the mailer said, revenues are projected to rise from Rs 94,000 crore in FY19 to Rs 98,000 crore in the current fiscal and then to Rs 1,01,000 crore in 2020-21 and Rs 1,04,000 crore in the year thereafter. Indicating it has put the past behind, Essar said it is armed with a substantially lighter balance sheet after it took a conscious call of reducing its debt in response to evolving domestic and evolving economic scenario. "Our strong portfolio of companies consistently generates healthy and sustainable earnings and have combined revenue of Rs 1,00,000 crore (USD 14 billion)," it said. Essar said it has made capital investments of over Rs 2 lakh crore (about USD 28 billion) in sectors like ports, steel plants, oil refining and fuel retailing, oil and gas exploration &amp; production, power generation &amp; transmission, mining, shipping, and telecom, with substantial equity from the Essar Group. The Group said it will continue to use its entrepreneurial skills, a vast pool of human resources, and decades of experience and innovation in pursuing fresh opportunities and creating value for all its stakeholders. The Essar letter was jointly signed by promoters Ravi Ruia and Prashant Ruia. Many years back, the Group, which built India's second-largest pan-Indian telecom operations with Hutchison, sold its 33 per cent stake to Vodafone for USD 5.4 billion (Rs 28,827 crore). Later it sold its 20 million tonnes oil refinery at Vadinar and over 3,500 petrol pumps to Rosneft and partners for USD 12.9 billion (Rs 86,000 crore). Its BPO business, Aegis was monetised for USD 910 million (Rs 5,660 crore). Its steel business, which was made up of 10 million tonnes per annum plant and 20 million tonnes of pellet making capacity, went for USD 6 billion (Rs 42,000 crore) in bankruptcy proceedings to recover unpaid loans. Essar said the challenges it faced over the years did not stop it from creating world-class assets. The greenfield assets built by it have attracted significant foreign direct investment (FDI) of USD 40 billion, which is reflective of the superior and world-class quality of its assets. The Essar Oil-Rosneft deal alone saw over Rs 86,000 crore of FDI, the country's largest until date, it claimed. Essar said it currently owns businesses in the core sectors of energy, metals &amp; mining, infrastructure, services and technology. In the energy sector, Essar has commercial interests in oil, gas and coal bed methane exploration and production in India, Vietnam and Nigeria; oil refining and retailing in UK and power generation in India and Canada. In infrastructure, it operates ports and terminals in India, UK and Africa, and has commercial interests in turnkey project construction in India and the Middle East. In the metals and mining sectors, the Essar Group has exposure in iron ore mining and pelletisation and coal mining in the USA and Indonesia. In new-age services, Essar said it has business interests in digital solutions and customer experience platforms in India, Europe, and USA. "We have fulfilled our corporate social responsibility with focused community uplift programmes in areas of livelihoods and entrepreneurship, women's empowerment, health, education, infrastructure and environment. The positive impact of these initiatives makes a difference in the lives of 500,000 people from 500 villages across 8 Indian states," it said in the letter. Reminiscing the last 50 years of its journey, Essar reflected that it had to face several business and regulatory challenges along the way in its flagship steel and power businesses, "which particularly impacted us". "Committed gas supply contracts for the Essar Steel Complex were withdrawn in 2012 and allotted coal mines for power plants were canceled in 2014, leading to a partial closure of some of our prime operating assets," it said. ANZ DRR

Essar to further cut down debt by 70 pc in last leg of deleveraging exercise

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/27835438.cms" /> If you think <keyword id="10387" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Microsoft">Microsoft</keyword>’s prolonged search for the next <keyword id="5645" type="POSITION" weightage="100" keywordseo="CEO">CEO</keyword> is getting a bit nutty, especially with a disgruntled <keyword id="62333" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Steve-Ballmer">Steve Ballmer</keyword> waiting on the sidelines to hand over the mantle, you are not far from the truth. But then, that is the actual state of the coveted C-Suite nowadays – volatile is the right word if you want to sum it up. There is no job security at the top and even the best performer for years can get redundant within the span of a few weeks. The issues could be many – right from <keyword id="646347" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="poor-performance">poor performance</keyword> to <keyword id="610960" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="business-restructuring">business restructuring</keyword> to alleged <keyword id="6375736" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="corruption-charges">corruption charges</keyword>. But the biggest factor is relevance, a perfect future-fit that can take companies ahead, according to <keyword id="67736" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Industry-experts">industry experts</keyword>. In a difficult <keyword id="34412" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="economy">economy</keyword>, companies are compelled to twist and turn to keep track of profitability and their requirements change accordingly. Hence, their leaders have to adapt, shape up or ship out, as the case might be. 
 India is no exception and business leaders across the country have been frequently ‘released’ by industry giants. Many of them leave with ‘immediate effect’ while others are on garden leave or worse still, waiting for their predecessors to turn up (just like Ballmer). Yet, most of the C-Suite executives are tight-lipped about their departures, at least here in India. We are yet to come across an announcement like the one made by <keyword id="384914" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Groupon">Groupon</keyword>’s founder and former CEO <keyword id="488139" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Andrew-Mason">Andrew Mason</keyword>. But exit happens all the same – be it discreet or blatant. Here’s a quick look at some of the top-notch C-Suite executives from India who parted ways with their respective companies in 2013, their official exit lines and what happened behind the scene.

Strife At The Top: These
11 C-Suite Execs From India
Were ‘Let Go’ In 2013

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/31596749.cms" /> <keyword id="624" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Women">Women</keyword>’s Day is just a few hours away but do you have a strategy in place yet to inspire and usher in change? Inspiring the change is the theme of this year and it seems to gel well with the general scenario here in India. The upcoming <keyword id="6355187" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Lok-Sabha">Lok Sabha</keyword> polls are expected to bring in some radical changes while businesses are always ready to adopt forward-thinking vision and disrupting practices. If growth and change are very much there on your personal agenda, it may help to listen to those who have had first-hand experience of triumphs and struggles. So in the third part of our Power Women series, <keyword id="824043" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Business-Insider">Business Insider</keyword> India chats with <keyword id="232724" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ishita-Swarup">Ishita Swarup</keyword>, co-founder and CEO of <keyword id="645258" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="99labels-com">99labels.com</keyword>. She also runs a separate <keyword id="2109310" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Catalogue-site">catalogue site</keyword> called <keyword id="2109308" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="9rasa-com">9rasa.com</keyword>, which focuses on <keyword id="63778" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="ethnic-wear">ethnic wear</keyword>. 
 But before we go ahead, here’s a quick look-back. 99labels was launched in 2009 as a members-only, <keyword id="2109315" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flash-sales-site">flash sales site</keyword>, offering <keyword id="6574071" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Luxury-brands">luxury brands</keyword> in <keyword id="1861782" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="fashion-apparel">fashion apparel</keyword>, <keyword id="23964" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="accessories">accessories</keyword> and a wide range of <keyword id="1031145" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="lifestyle-products">lifestyle products</keyword>. Although the concept was both novel and popular at that time, an <keyword id="2109319" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Overcrowded-e-commerce-space">overcrowded e-commerce space</keyword> meant tough competition for the <keyword id="2109321" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Digital-venture">digital venture</keyword>. In another setback last year, institutional investor <keyword id="80004" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Info-Edge">Info Edge</keyword> decided to write off its entire investment in 99labels – a sum of around Rs 29.3 crore. Info Edge said the move was made due to <keyword id="2109342" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Asset-impairment">asset impairment</keyword>. 
 Although media speculations were rife that 99labels could go out of business soon, Ishita and her team have been coping with the turmoil for a year now – re-inventing the business (the flash sales model is gone) and trying to raise <keyword id="2109329" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="External-capital">external capital</keyword> to ensure growth. And it surely proves that Ishita not only loves challenges but she would go all out to tackle tough times. 
 An Economics major from <keyword id="6360099" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Delhi-University">Delhi University</keyword> and an MBA from IMT Ghaziabad, she started her career with Cadburys and later launched <keyword id="2109331" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Orion-Dialog">Orion Dialog</keyword>, a pioneer in the ITeS sector in India. Ishita exited by selling the company to <keyword id="98385" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Aegis">Aegis</keyword> BPO, part of the <keyword id="6425677" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Essar-Group">Essar Group</keyword>, and then helped set up a social venture called <keyword id="2109332" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sakha-Consulting-Wings">Sakha Consulting Wings</keyword>, launched to provide <keyword id="2109335" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Safe-transport-solutions">safe transport solutions</keyword> for women, by women, in urban India. Next came 99labels and the saga continues in spite of ups and downs. What’s Ishita’s view on <keyword id="107737" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Entrepreneurship">entrepreneurship</keyword> and its hurdles? Find out here. 
 
I always wanted to run my own business As far as I remember, it was always there at the back of my mind. I always wanted to do something of my own. I had quite a few <keyword id="435643" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Business-ideas">business ideas</keyword> that I believed would work if they were implemented. And finally, I have always had complete belief that I can make things happen. 
 
Learn to live with ups and downs It is a given that as an <keyword id="6359301" type="POSITION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Entrepreneur">entrepreneur</keyword>, you will face highs and lows, positives and negatives. On the positive side, I would say, I have experienced success. However small, it makes me happy because I treat it as my personal success. Then, I had the opportunity to do so many varied things and learn from each. I have been extremely fortunate to be able to turn many of my ideas into reality and some into successes. 
 And the negatives are there, too. As an entrepreneur, there can be excessive <keyword id="23666" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="stress">stress</keyword>, especially when things go wrong. There are also times when one feels lonely and isolated and without support. The other thing I miss is the chance to learn from my peer group and/or seniors. But the biggest challenge has been the <keyword id="6367339" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Lack-of-funds">lack of funds</keyword>, especially when I am trying to scale the business. Still, one has to cope with these things and get ahead. 
 
<keyword id="6387628" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Inspiration">Inspiration</keyword> matters 
Because it gives you a different perspective all the time, cheers you up and makes you strong. My inspiration in life comes from the people I meet along the way and from those who are in my life. I find inspiration from my young daughter who looks at mundane things in unique ways and doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. My grandmother also inspires me – she was a path-breaker in many ways. My husband leads a disciplined life and I have learnt a lot from him. Then there’s a close friend whose positive spirit is extremely infectious. 
 
Want to start up? Just do it 
My only advice for anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur is that if you believe in yourself and your idea, don’t hesitate to take the plunge. Just do it. When you are running your own business, you have a lot of freedom to do it the way you want to. Don’t let go of that opportunity. 
 
Watch this space tomorrow – Power Women will be back with its last but no less intriguing success story.

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