MUMBAI: UK-based outsourcer Serco is considering options for its Indian BPO unit whose likely buyout by private equity players is taking longer than expected.“The process related to the potential disposal of our offshore private sector BPO business, the main elements of which are the former Intelenet business, continues. The board is considering a number of alternative options, and a further update will be provided in due course,” Rupert Soames, group chief executive of Serco Plc , said in the company’s half-yearly trading statement with the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday. The sale has been slowed by a warning from the BPO unit's current management that it will resign should the sale go through to the frontrunner CVC-Capital backed SPI. The matter was reported by ETearlier.Soames said the company is working on getting rid of loss-making contracts in the BPO unit, particularly those serviced on-shore in the UK.Serco, which had put the BPO unit on the block to fill a 1.5 billion pound hole in its balance sheet, had expected to complete the sale by the end of June. But private equity players like Apax backed out of the bid, and the BPO’s existing management balked at SPI’s plan to jettison the unit’s current CEO, Susir Kumar Mangalore. Blackstone, which had sold the Indian unit, Intelenet, to Serco in 2011, was also in the fray.“The alternatives could include running the unit with the current management for some more time if the sale to SPI falls through. Blackstone was just not giving the appropriate value,” a Serco executive with knowledge of the discussion said. He added that talks were still on with the private equity players and that no decision had yet been taken.Serco had also offered a bonus to staff if the deal went through with CVC and they co-operated with the transaction. ET has a copy of the bonus letter. The bonus was also contingent on the transaction completing no later than October 31, 2015.“There is the ongoing saga around the private sector BPO business disposal. This has clearly not gone to plan. The management needs to draw a line through this situation soonest, to move on with restoring stability to it new core, business to government services,” John O'Brien, research director with the UK firm, TechMarketView, said.