US-headquartered Sutherland Global Services has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100 per cent of Apollo Health Street (AHS), an associate company of Apollo Hospitals Enterprises. The transaction that is said to be worth about Rs 1,000 crore is an all-cash deal and is expected to be closed by February 2013, subject to necessary regulatory approvals.

Apollo Hospitals Enterprises provides end-to-end medical outsourcing services including revenue cycle management of hospitals, professional services and patient claims management services catering to US-based doctor groups, hospitals and insurers. The BPO has offices in Chennai, Hyderabad and New York. For financial year 2012, the company’s revenue increased to Rs 490.90 crore from Rs 447.60 crore the previous year.

As of March 31, Apollo Hospitals held about 1.1 crore equity shares of the BPO amounting to about Rs 123 crore (38.69 per cent of the total equity of the company). Apollo Hospitals further owns 0.69 per cent through its wholly-owned subsidiary Unique Home Health Care.

Maxwell Mauritius and One Equity Partners own the remaining stakes in AHS. In 2005, the two companies that are part of Temasek and JP Morgan Chase, respectively, invested about $7.5 million in the healthcare BPO.

Sutherland’s acquisition of AHS would position the combined organisation as a leading healthcare service provider.

This would provide the firm comprehensive information technology and business process integrated solutions to consolidate its presence as a dominant player in the $38-billion US healthcare BPO market, said Dilip Vellodi, founder chairman and CEO of Sutherland Global Services.

“With this acquisition, Sutherland addresses the central challenge facing major north American and European healthcare providers and payers (hospitals and insurance companies) -- to provide service to patients in a cost effective manner. Apollo’s expertise, combined with our proven capabilities, strengthens our portfolio of payer, provider and health IT solutions in driving value to our client base,” he added.

Established in 1986, Sutherland is one of the largest independent BPO companies with over 30,000 employees globally working out of 35 operations centers in India, the US, Philippines, India, UAE, Egypt, Bulgaria, the UK, Canada, Jamaica, Mexico, and Colombia.