Serco makes £385m buy in India... while Capita snaps up Surrey healthcare firm

Serco, organiser of the Boris Bike scheme, today spent up to £385 million buying one of India's biggest outsourcers from Blackstone, the US private-equity giant.

Intelenet employs more than 30,000 people to manage call centres and carry out back-office accountancy and payroll work, mainly in the financial services, travel, healthcare and telecom sectors. Big customers include British transport operator FirstGroup.

Intelenet had revenues of £170 million in the year to April.

Serco used its debt facilities to pay for Intelenet, with the final sum of £385 million including extra payments of up to £50 million based on its performance.

Chief executive Chris Hyman said: "The acquisition supports our ambitions as a leading global service company."