ACS Group, the American call centre operator, with business in Asia and the Caribbean, is on line to acquire Patrick Casserly's e-Services Ltd.

However, the deal, informed sources say, cannot be finalised until Casserly gets the green light from a handful of his major clients indicating that they have no objection to some of their most sensitive commercial information being handled by the potential buyer.

"The negotiations hit a snag," one source told the Financial Gleaner last week. "At least two of e-Services' biggest customers have not sent through their consent letters, which are critical to the finalising of the deal."

Casserly had earlier declined to comment on the prospective sale of e-Services and could not be contacted for comment yesterday, but other sources suggested that there were hurdles still to be cleared for the deal to be done.

Client list

E-Services, with nearly 4,000 employees and a client list that includes some of best-known names in corporate America, including Delta Airlines, is Jamaica's largest call centre operator. In Jamaica, ACS, a major global player in the field, is number two, with around 2,000 employees.

If it consummates the deal with e-Services, ACS would, effectively, become the island's call centre industry, dwarfing the remaining handful of independent companies.

Ironically, it would be the second time that ACS would have acquired a call centre firm launched by Casserly, having previously bought out his previous start-up in the late 1990s.

Casserly, who owns an estimated 30 per cent of e-Services, started the company in 2000 with a handful of Jamaican partners and American venture capitalists, who have the largest chunk of the enterprise.

However, it is Casserly, as the managing partner and the face of e-Services, who has driven rapid growth over the past eight years and now believes that the company demands a fresh inflow of capital to drive its expansion.

Expansion

E-Services, Financial Gleaner sources estimate, has revenue of around US$80 million a year and debt of around US$4.5 million.

"It has been funding its expansion out of profit, but Casserly feels that is no longer sustainable if e-Services is to be taken to the next level," one know-ledgeable source said. "He believes that it is necessary to bring someone aboard with the resources necessary to finance the growth."

ACS officials were unavailable for comment, but the Financial Gleaner sources said that the idea was for the company to create a special vehicle for the e-Services acquisition.

"E-Services would remain independent, continuing to leverage its strong brand and Casserly would commit to staying on as its chief executive officer," they said.

business@gleanerjm.com