Healthcare segment in general, and its acquisition of MedAssist last year in
particular, helped Firstsource buck the recessionary blues. The complete
integration of this US-based healthcare revenue cycle management provider has
also been accomplished. With this booster shot, Firstsource would have grown
organically by a modest 10-11%. In fact, healthcare revenue grew by 89% and
accounted for 45% of the total business of Firstsource, making it the biggest
vertical for the company at the end of FY 09.
In fact, except for healthcare, Firstsources business was severely under
pressure, especially from the BFSI vertical that accounts for around 26% of the
overall pie. While the topline still grew by 24%, thanks to volumes,
profitability dropped. Firstsource is also a player in the US credit collection
business, which accounts for nearly 10% of its revenues. Surprisingly, telecom
revenues took a hit, as the company saw a fall of around 3% in revenues. It was
better able to diversify revenues from customers as top five dependency fell
from 37% to 31%.
The geographic spread of revenues shifted towards the US, mainly due to the
exponential growth in healthcare, and North America now accounts for a whopping
71%. Revenues from Europe fell by about 8% and now accounts for the rest 29%.
This uneven distribution could turn out to be the Achilles heel for Firstsource.
However, it is doing fairly good in the domestic space, and has been adding
several accounts and centers at a fast pace. Meanwhile, the company has
continued with its reach out to the customer philosophy by adding another
delivery center in the UK, in addition to the ones like MedAssist in the US. It
also received local government assistance in northern Ireland to step up
presence there.
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Ananda Mukerji, CEO | |
Carl Saldanha, CFO Sanjiv Dalal, CTO Aashu Calapha, head, HR Chandeep Singh, head, quality Matthew Vallance, president, BFSI, telecom & media, Europe Michael Shea, president, healthcare, North America Sanjeev Sinha, senior VP, BFSI |
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FACTSHEET | |
l Start-up Year: 2001 l Employees: 12,286 l Address: 6th Floor, Peninsula Chambers, Ganpatrao Kadam Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai 400013 l Tel: 02266660888 l Fax: 02266635481 l Website: www.firstsource.com |
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HIGHLIGHTS | |
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The coming year continues to be challenging for Firstsource, mainly due to
its high exposure to the US and over 50% revenue exposure to BFSI and telecom.
There could also be some management changes in the offing, as there are reports
that ICICI and other investors are keen to sell their stakes in the company and
lots of private equity firms are vying for the same. DQ