"The principal driver for TELUS's coming to this part of the world is customer demand. We have had multiple requests from our customers who require support in multiple European languages. Thus far we have been able to meet some of that demand from our operations in Canada, the U.S. and Latin America," Jeffrey Puritt told SeeNews after the deal was officially announced at a news conference in Sofia.
Puritt said TELUS has acquired the minority stake in CallPoint New Europe held by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as well as further equity from the company's founders.
CallPoint New Europe operates a total of 1,200 seats at four delivery centrеs: in Sofia and Plovdiv, in Bulgaria, and in Bucharest and Craiova, in Romania. It provides services in 28 languages and has more than 50 clients across Europe and the U.S., including businesses in the travel, e-commerce, IT, pharmaceutical and financial services sectors.
TELUS International is the global arm of TELUS Corporation, the second largest telecommunications service provider in Canada. TELUS International delivers contact center, IT and business process outsourcing solutions to some of the world's largest and most respected corporations in the financial services, consumer electronics, telecommunications, and energy and utilities industries.
The TELUS executive added that the acquisition move was also driven by expectations that it would put the Canadian company in a position to serve more customers. "Customers that are not yet our customers but will become customers, we believe, now that we have this additional delivery capability."
In addition to voice-based customer care capabilities, TELUS was also looking for a partner with a skills set around IT and engineering and back-office support as well as overall capability to support the industries from which the company's customers derive.
Puritt said that, in preparation for the acquisition move, the company had vetted businesses in Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. "We evaluated every single one of them and eventually Romania and Bulgaria percolated to the top of the list. Once we figured out where then it was how: buy, build or partner up. We decided that we would derisk our investment by finding a partner who had expertise and experience doing exactly what we do, serving the same kind of customers and approaching the business, their customers and their team members the way we approach the business."
After the comprehensive research, TELUS shortlisted a total of five companies based in Romania and Bulgaria. "And from those five we ended up with a clear first choice and thankfully that first choice accepted our offer," the official said.
On potential acquisition targets in the region further down the road, Puritt said that, over time, it is possible TELUS might extend a partnership invitation to others but for the time being he was hopeful the strong base and delivery capability ensured by the CallPoint deal would allow the business to grow organically.
The Canadian company's investment in the Philippines in 2005 started out with a majority equity stake and then over time, it bought the balance. In Latin America, it started off with the acquisition of a minority stake and over time bought out the remaining equity. "Would I say with absolute certainty we would do it again? Likely. But we’ll see what happens. It all depends on whether they [the CallPoint founders] want to sell, whether we want to buy," Puritt said.
