By Lavern Clarke, Staff Reporter
PATRICK CASSERLY has inked a deal with Financial Sector Adjustment Company to acquire Oxford Manor in New Kingston, a building well known locally as the place to go for the heavily demanded American visa.
The parties signed a memorandum of understanding Monday ahead of executing the sale, for which the formal agreement is to be signed September 29, Casserly told Wednesday Business.
The sale was originally scheduled to go through on Monday, within the precincts of Jampro and under the watchful eye of two Cabinet ministers whose Government is hungry for job-creating investments. But lawyers were still putting final touches on the paperwork, hence the postponement, Casserly said, insisting that the deal was solid.
His acquisition of the New Kingston property, located at 12-16 Oxford Road, will facilitate the expansion of his firm, e-Services Group International (e-SGI), a three year old information technology company that had its beginnings in the Montego Bay Free Zone in March 2000.
JOINT VENTURE
Casserly is better known in the information technology business as the chief executive of Sitel Caribbean, also based in Montego Bay. But Sitel Caribbean is actually a joint venture between e-SGI and Sitel Corporation, in which Casserly has the majority 70 per cent stake, while the American company has the other 30 per cent.
Noting that e-Services was a "very quiet company" often referred to erroneously as Sitel both offer the same services Casserly said: "It's just such a difficult thing to explain to people in general, I just let everyone call us Sitel Caribbean." At start up, the company invested US$3 million to set up business in the free zone.
The current expansion plans are specific to e-SGI and not the joint venture. The two companies employ 1,000, approximately 300 of which work with Sitel Caribbean, in line with the projections Casserly had announced at the company's launch. And with new contracts secured, he plans to add another 200 workers to the payroll in Montego Bay by December.
Casserly was reluctant to speak to the price he is paying ahead of the signing, but the expansion figure tops the initial Montego Bay investment, in what the company head described as a multi-million deal. Wednesday Business was told otherwise that the figure ranges between $200 to $300 million.
Scheduled for start up in January 2004, the plan for the Kingston centre is to grow the business to employ 900 over its first three years of operation.
Eschewing the title of 'telemarker', Casserly says his company is a "true" business process outsourcer, providing contact services via telephone, email and web charts for international customers, including large health insurance companies which means, he said, that the businesses "call us for information about their insured population."
The IT firm handles an average 25,000 inbound calls per day, he told Wednesday Business.
Commerce and Technology Minister, Phillip Paulwell, who has held up Casserly's company as an example of the potential of the IT sector, said part of the company's success lies in its recognition that the opportunities are in inbound services.
"Sitel has demonstrated what effective and sound management can bring to bear on this market," he said in reaction to the company's growth plans.
Oxford Manor is a 60,000 square foot property. The e-SGI operation will take up three quarters of the space, while the other 15,000 sq. ft. will remain occupied by existing tenants, said the e-SGI chief executive.