Comdata, the leading Italian company for outsourcing of contact center, help desk, back office, credit management and document management services, controlled by Carlyle private equity firm, announced yesterday it has signed an agreement to buy four subsidiaries of French Crm and Bpo leader Izium group (see here the press release). The deal is valued about 200 million euros, MF Milano Finanza writes today.
Maxime Didier,  Izium Group’s founder and chairman, will reinvest in Comdata with an 11% stake joining Carlyle (82%), Comdata’s chairman Enrico Saraval (6.5%) and the management. The dealis expected to close by the end of August.
The acquisition inclused 100% of BCust, Colorado Conseil and Cms, operating respectively in technological solutions, Crm advisory and B2B credit collection, and of 100% of B2S, a leading player in France in Crm services, with presence in Marocco and Madagascar. The four companies reached cumulative revenues of 180 million euros in 2016 and employ about 6 thousand people.
Comdata also refinanced its debt with 400 million euros of new lines issued by international banks and credit funds, MF Milano Finanza writes today.
Led by ceo Massimo Canturi, Comdata is developing an active m&a strategy. Last May the group acquired Spanish group Overtop Projects (see here a previous post by BeBeez). That acquisition was made through Spanish group Digitex,which in turn had been acquired by Comdata in February 2016 ( see here a previous post byBeBeez). In July 2016 Condata had instead acuired Turkish group Win Bilgi Iletisim (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
With more than 36k employees and more than 400 customers in 14 countries, Comdata Group had reached 570 million euros in revenues in 2016 thanks to Digitex’s deal.
“Thanks to this acquisition we will reach more than 750 million euros in pro-forma revenues this year  and become one of the five Crm and Bpo leaders in Europe”, Mr. Canturi said.
Carlyle had acquired control in Comdata in December 2015, buying the group out from Altair Sistemi informatici, a holding company owned by Mr. Saraval (back then owning an 85% stake in Comdata) and from Synergo sgr private equity firm (15%). After that deal, Carlyle owned a 90% stake, Mr. Saraval remained with a 7.5% stake and the management owned the remaining 2.5%, with Mr. Canturi who was confirmed as Comdata’s ceo (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
