Groupe Acticall to Acquire Sitel
French firm Groupe Acticall will acquire Sitel Worldwide, a global customer care provider headquartered in the United States. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Sitel, a provider of outsourced customer care, has 61,100 employees operating in 108 facilities in 21 countries, supporting clients in 62 countries across Europe, North America, South America, Africa, and Asia Pacific. It manages more than 2.1 million transactions daily.
Groupe Acticall's portfolio includes five subsidiaries: Extens Consulting, Learning CRM, Acticall Centres de Contacts, The Social Client, and Novagile. With revenue of $196 million in 2014, the Acticall Group has 7,500 employees in 20 sites: 15 in France, three in Morocco, one in the Ivory Coast, and one in Brazil.
"A few months ago, Groupe Acticall entered into a new phase of growth with the support of its controlling shareholder, Creadev," said Laurent Uberti, CEO of Groupe Acticall, in a statement. "We are delighted to execute this strategy by partnering with such a high-quality business as Sitel. With a leading international footprint, a blue-chip customer base, a very talented management team, and great technology, Sitel is already a world leader. With the Acticall team and the support of Creadev, we will strive to expand the Sitel business even further."
"We are very excited by Acticall’s commitment to Sitel and our industry, as well as our shared vision for the future," said Bert Quintana, chairman, CEO, and pPresident of Sitel, in a statement. "By combining Sitel’s 30 years of experience, global platform, and unrivaled client base with Acticall’s long-term view, entrepreneurial success, and digital vision, with a significantly improved capital structure we are extremely well positioned to continue to lead the industry."
Quintana will remain as CEO and president of Sitel.
For many industry analysts, the acquisition was not surprising. Peter Ryan, an industry analyst at Ovum, for example, pointed out that rumors of a sale involving Sitel "had been rampant for the past several months."
In a blog post, Ryan wrote that the acquisition positions Groupe Acticall as "a global contact center player" that will "clearly benefit from Sitel's global presence."
Sitel, which is being maintained as a separate brand, will also benefit, according to Ryan. "Having a parent company that is culturally aligned to both the contact center sector and long-term strategic objectives will be the ingredients Sitel needs to consistently grow in line with other global contact center vendors," he wrote.