After grabbing immense media attention for the past four years due to its Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) program, Aviva Global Services (AGS), the U.K.-based insurance giant, Aviva’s offshore unit, is again making headlines with its acquisition announcement. The company has been sold to WNS, an India-based Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company. This is India’s largest captive buyout so far.

The total purchase consideration paid to Aviva for the transaction is approximately $228 million, subject to adjustments for cash and debt. WNS funded the transaction through a combination of cash and a bank loan facility of approximately $200 million credit from ICICI Bank and $30 million in equity contribution from a buyout firm Warburg Pincus, which owns a majority of WNS’ stakes.

Besides, WNS has also been selected as AGS’ prime BPO services provider to provide life and general insurance processing functions services worth $1 billion for AGS’ Canadian and U.K. operations for a duration of eight years and four months. Other providers will be capped on numbers and duration as per their existing contracts.

“This [acquisition] bolsters our capabilities, not only across all our businesses, but also in every segment of the insurance industry including property and casualty, life, annuities and health. The deal gives us end-to-end process capabilities,” says Neeraj Bhargava, CEO, WNS.

Following the agreement, WNS has provided revised guidance for the fiscal year ending March 31st, 2009. The company’s revenueless repair payments for fiscal 2009 is expected to be between $425 million and $435 million, up from the company’s previous guidance of $373 million to $378 million. Even the net income (excluding amortization of intangible assets, share-based compensation and related fringe benefit taxes,) for fiscal 2009 is expected to be between $46 million and $49 million, up from the company’s previous guidance of $44 million to $46 million.

AGS has four operations in India (Bangalore, Pune, Noida and Chennai) and one in Sri Lanka (Colombo). In July ’07, WNS-managed Colombo BOT was transferred to Aviva. This was AGS’ second BOT transfer after the handover of the first one (at Bangalore, India) by 24/7 Customer. AGS’ third BOT facility, which was being build by EXL Services (at Pune), had just got finished a week before the acquisition’s announcement.

Now for the Chennai and Pune facilities, AGS has issued transfer notices to the third-party providers to handover them to the company within 30 days.