Scandent buys stake in Aon

BANGALORE: Singapore based Scandent, which has an outsourcing business in India, has bought a majority stake in the back-office unit of insurance broker Aon Corp. for about $110 million, according to a source close to the deal.

Work done by Aon's claims processing unit, Cambridge Integrated Services, will be migrated to India where Scandent subsidiary ProcessMind specializes in outsourced management of projects and insurance claims, the source said.

Privately held Scandent, which also has an IT consulting and services arm, Scandent Solutions, was founded by Ramesh Vangal, a former head of food giant PepsiCo Inc. in India, and Chris Sinclair, once chief executive of PepsiCo's food business.

Last year, Scandent also acquired the software service unit of SSI Ltd., whose main interest is in education related to information technology.

The Aon unit acquisition follows a series of consolidation moves in India's booming outsourcing sector. IBM bought call center firm Daksh in April and Citigroup Inc. took a majority stake in e-Serve International Ltd. in August.