Now that the anticipated acquisition of WNS has been announced, what does this mean for Capgemini and for the broader BPS market?

We feel this is a sound and timely move by Capgemini that will position it very strongly as the BPS market evolves to what it and other providers are calling ‘Intelligent BPS’.

Firstly, some basic facts:

• News of interest by several firms in acquiring WNS entered the public domain at the start of the year, and in April Capgemini was in ’advanced discussions’. Capgemini’s current offer of USD $76.50 a share, valuing WNS at $3.3bn, is a premium of 28% on the last 90-day average. Capgemini will finance the deal with a €4bn bridge loan. The transaction has been unanimously approved by both companies’ boards and is expected to complete before the end of the year
• WNS’ FY25 net revenues of $1.27bn were just below prior guidance, due primarily to the loss of a large healthcare client in North America (a major factor in its sliding share price) and also to market softness in the online travel agency sector. But the company is sound: if we look at topline performance, CAAGR over the last three years is around 9%. FY26 net revenue guidance indicates targeted growth of 7%-11% in CC, including 2% inorganic contribution from Kipi.ai. And WNS is nicely profitable (FY25: 13.9% EBIT margin, 18.7% AEBIT margin)
• Combined, the WNS and Capgemini BPS business achieved revenues of €1.9bn in CY24. Capgemini claims the acquisition will be immediately accretive to both revenue growth (€100-140m by end 2027) and operating margin, with typical levers being applied for cost and operating model synergies (€50-70m by end 2027).

Portfolio, Sector and Market Synergies

As it stands, WNS will nearly triple the size of Capgemini’s BPS business (from €700m to €1.9bn). The traditional levers of portfolio, sector, and market behind most scale acquisitions all work well here:

• Portfolio: WNS generates over 41% of its revenues (FY25 data) from industry-specific services; in comparison, Capgemini’s BPS business is primarily horizontal, in the back-office, and in F&A. WNS will bring to Capgemini deep industry domain knowledge and extensive experience in BPS, with a broad range of proprietary platforms and solutions underpinning these services. WNS has also developed a significant research & analytics capability in recent years: potentially this could be applied, as one example, to some of Capgemini’s manufacturing & high-tech clients in the areas of IoT and predictive maintenance. Around 20% of WNS revenues are in the front office. There are clear synergies here with Capgemini’s CX consulting capabilities, and Capgemini could potentially take WNS into Continental Europe, where WNS does not have a CX presence
• Sector: WNS generates 37% of its revenues from BFSI sectors. While Capgemini has extensive business in these sectors (21% of its total revenues), little of this is in BPS: this acquisition will position Capgemini as a significant player in BPS in the insurance sector
• Market: in particular, WNS will scale Capgemini’s BPS business in the U.S. (until last year the U.S. accounted for around half of WNS’ revenues) and the U.K. (around a quarter). And Capgemini will provide opportunities for WNS to expand in Europe.

In terms of the client base, WNS will bring in a client roster that includes blue-chips. Capgemini cites as examples Aviva, M&T Bank, Centrica, United Airlines, and McCain Foods.

So, if we look at the current WNS business, it will bring scale to Capgemini in BPS, be accretive to revenue growth and operating margin, and provide immediate cross-selling opportunities.

Positioning for Intelligent BPS

Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, as Capgemini highlights, the addition of WNS will position it very strongly for the evolution of BPS into what Capgemini is calling ‘Intelligent BPS’ for business process and operational transformation. The arguments are clear. Organizations are starting to see that GenAI and Agentic AI, with agentic orchestration of course, might feasibly transform entire business processes – and that they will need external support in achieving this.

Capgemini emphasizes the WNS acquisition is in line with the corporate strategy it has been following for some time. Two years ago, Capgemini announced a €2bn investment over three years in GenAI capabilities and launched a GenAI portfolio of services, including GenAI strategy consulting and GenAI for CX, for software engineering, and for the enterprise. Subsequent developments have included the ’Trusted AI framework’ for the industrialization of GenAI projects. Since then, Capgemini has developed RAISE, a GenAI and AI agent builder and gallery. And last week, Capgemini launched its Resonance AI Framework. Capgemini is positioning on its abilities to help clients leverage GenAI not just for operational improvement but also innovation and business reinvention. Today, most (not all) Agentic AI use cases center on task automation, employee productivity, or CX enrichment. But there is little doubt that this is just the beginning. And organizations are acutely aware of this.

Capgemini’s consulting, systems integration and data & AI capabilities combined with WNS’ process knowledge, domain expertise and IP assets will be a powerful mix for opportunities where client organizations are looking for a business transformation partner.

Capgemini has made no secret for some years now about its ambitions to position against Accenture. Accenture’s recent announcement of a major reorganization strategy creating a single, integrated business unit called Reinvention Services spanning Strategy, Consulting, Song, Technology, and Operations (primarily its BPS business) reflects Accenture’s emphasis on leading in GenAI in order to be a ‘reinvention partner of choice’ to clients. Capgemini has the same focus.

Operational transformation outside the scope of the BPS engagement. For leading BPS providers such as WNS, a significant part of their activity is deploying their operational transformational skills and toolsets for processes that lie outside the scope of their BPS engagement, including in clients’ global capability centers (GCCs). And demand around GCCs is surging. Last month, for example, Capgemini was awarded a multi-year contract by Dai-ichi Life Group to establish a GCC in India ‘to enable Dai-ichi Life Group’s transformation agenda’. WNS’ capabilities are very relevant here; Capgemini and WNS together will be very strongly positioned for similar GCC opportunities.

Bottom Line

There are, of course, challenges (one relates to pricing models: while vendors continue to push for transaction-based or even outcome-based pricing, many organizations remain wedded to T&M based pricing). But none of these challenges are company-specific. In terms of cultural alignment, our view is that WNS and Capgemini have broadly similar cultures. It is a decade since Capgemini’s acquisition of iGate, and in that time Capgemini has gained extensive experience of acquiring and integrating Indian-centric businesses.

In short, this is a major, potentially game-changing, move by Capgemini, one that should position it very strongly for the inevitable (in our view) growth opportunities that are coming from applying agentic AI in BPS.