<div>Power utility CESC Ltd said it would pay Rs 395 crore for a 49.5 per cent stake in Firstsource Solutions Ltd, a business process outsourcing company.</div><div> </div><div>Including a mandatory open offer for another 26 per cent of the shares, CESC expects to invest a total of Rs 650 crore to acquire Firstsource, which will help it expand outside the power sector.</div><div> </div><div>"Growth opportunities in the power sector are getting ... somewhat challenging and returns from the power sector are also not as lucrative as they were," Sanjiv Goenka, vice chairman the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group which controls CESC, told a television channel.</div><div> </div><div>Firstsource will issue about 227 million shares, or 34.5 per cent of equity capital, on a preferential basis to a unit of CESC at Rs 12.10 per share.</div><div> </div><div>CESC has also separately agreed to buy a total 15 per cent stake from existing Firstsource shareholders — Temasek Holdings, US-based Metavante Investments and ICICI Bank — at Rs 12.20 a share, it said in a statement to the stock exchange.</div><div> </div><div><em>(Reuters)</em></div>
