BT Northern Ireland has agreed to sell its largest call centre in Belfast to one of India's leading technology companies, in a deal worth £8.9 million sterling (€14.2 million).
The Indian company, HCL Technologies, will initially pay £8 million to acquire a 90 per cent stake in the Apollo Centre in Belfast, which currently employs 460 people.
BT Northern Ireland will retain a 10 per cent stake in Apollo for three years under the conditions of the deal, which allow HCL Technologies to pay £900,000 to buy out the telecommunications giant.
The British Telecom group made no secret of the fact that it wanted to sell off the call centre, which was opened three years ago, as part of the group's global restructuring programme to reduce its mountain of debt.
The Belfast-based Global Email Company (GEM) had also held exploratory negotiations regarding the call centre with BT in the past couple of months.
BT Northern Ireland has a further five internal company call centres that will not be affected by the Apollo sell-off.
HCL Technologies' decision to invest in Northern Ireland was yesterday described by the British Telecom group as a major boost for the North's economy. Mr Hanif Lalani, BT Northern Ireland director, said: "HCL is a world-class high technology business and comes as a recognised aggressive global player.
"The Apollo Centre is a superb facility staffed by loyal and talented employees who have contributed to the centre's acknowledged success.
"This is a promising and exciting development, securing its future as an outstanding operation," Mr Lalani said.
HCL has a market capitalisation of $1.75 billion (€1.96 billion) and is widely regarded as one of India's top tier technology companies; it is one of the top four of the largest in the country.
Its acquisition of Apollo brings to an end months of speculation over the call centre's future and the long-term prospects for its workforce.
Mr Shiv Nadar, founding chairman of HCL Technologies, travelled from India to conclude the deal in Belfast.
Mr Nadar said the new strategic alliance with BT Northern Ireland would help his company advance its strategic expansion strategy for Europe and the US.
"We bring a number of key qualities to this deal, financial strength, global reach, high technology and CRM capability.
"This strategic alliance will enable the Apollo Centre to leverage the strengths of HCL Technologies," Mr Nadar said.
