BA's former Indian offshore unit floats on NYSE

The former Indian offshore outsourcing unit of British Airways (BA) has raised more than $255m after completing its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

WNS floated at $20 per share on its opening day on the NYSE on 26 July, with shares reaching a high of $25 earlier this week and giving the company a market capitalisation of almost $1bn. The 12.7 million shares offered represent just over 28 per cent of the company.

WNS, which reported $202.6m in revenue for the last year, was originally set up by BA as a wholly owned captive business process outsourcing (BPO) division in Mumbai in 1996 to support the airline's back-office operations.

The company started offering services to other airlines in 1999 and became independent, with venture capital funds giving private equity firm Warburg Pincus a majority stake in WNS in 2002.

WNS has continued to boom through acquisitions and expansion out of the airline sector into insurance, finance and accounting, HR and research and analytics, now counting major global companies such as Aviva, Federal Express, Royal & SunAlliance, Tesco, Virgin Atlantic and WPP among its customers.

The company now has around 10,500 employees and operations in Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune and Sri Lanka.

As part of the IPO on the NYSE BA disclosed it has sold its 14.6 per cent stake in WNS for £52m, which will net the airline around £48m towards its second quarter financial results.

After also offloading some of its stake in WNS, Warburg Pincus will hold a majority 54 per cent share of the company.