BPO M&A market Romania 2015

M&A ACTIVITY ON THE BPO MARKET IN ROMANIA

The Romanian BPO M&A market is quite active and many transactions occur. Below we give some of the examples of some larger Romanian BPO M&A transactions.  NTT Data Corporation announced in November 2013 the acquisition of EBS Romania, a local company specialised in providing near-shore IT services for international customers. With Headquarters in Cluj Napoca, EBS has outsourcing experience in the segments of software engineering, software testing, quality assurance and application management and support.   Canadian outsourcing company Telus International entered the Romanian market in 2012 by acquiring the majority share package in call center operator CallPoint New Europe, which runs two call centers in Romania, in Bucharest and in Craiova. CallPoint New Europe was established in 2004 and it created, until the partnering announcement with Telus International, over 1,000 jobs in Romania and Bulgaria. CallPoint New Europe is a recognised specialist in multilingual BPO services that received the Award of the Best Romanian Call Center in 2012. In 2014, CallPoint becomes TELUS International EuropeThe company ACS, owned by Xerox, announced in September 2011 its plans to buy the Italian BPO company XL World, present on the Romanian market with offices in Oradea and Iasi. The acquisition furthered the strategy of ACS to create a global network of BPO centres.

BPO M&A opportunities in Romania

There is a lot of M&A opportunities in the Romanian BPO industry. The Romanian BPM industry (including BPO and SSC sectors) is a fast growing and attractive investment destination. The country offers a competitive business environment and highly skilled multi-lingual workforce at low cost. The costs efficiency with the employees, the country’s geographical location, the size of the domestic market, the adequate quality of the education system and the solid knowledge of foreign languages make Romania one of the best destinations for companies operating in the BPO and SSC sectors. We can point you to further BPO M&A opportunities in the Romanian market.In regards to the ITO potential, Romania is one of the best countries in the CEE for near-shore outsourcing, taking into account the low costs and the IT resources to be involved in sophisticated projects requiring access to innovative skills and technologies.Due to the remarkable performance of its IT&C sector, Romania has consolidated its position as an outsourcing hub in the CEE, the region becoming the new competitor of India. Romania’s highly skilled workforce has a better understanding of the Western European culture than their Asian competitor.Romania ranks 9th globally and 2nd in the CEE, as a preferred destination for companies operating in the business services sector.  The business services sector is expected to register fast growth on the Romanian market, as various companies target to reduce the operational costs and to improve the working capital. The Shared Service Center market in Romania started to develop in 2004 when companies such as Oracle, HP, Microsoft, Endava, EON, Office Depot, Temenos, Deutche Telecom, Stefanini etc set up their service centers on the domestic market in Bucharest, Cluj, Timisoara, Iasi, Brasov and Sibiu.Bucharest is the main outsourcing location in Romania, having the widest range of skills and languages, the biggest workforce and the proximity to the headquarters of many companies. Cluj Napoca and Timisoara, both important university and business centres, have rapidly developed over the last three years. Bucharest ranked 44th in Tholons’ top 100 outsourcing sites, while Cluj Napoca ranked 96th in 2012. Iasi (NE Romania), also an important university centre, offers lower operational and labour costs than Bucharest, Cluj and Timisoara.The Romanian BPM industry employs approximately 20,000 persons and the number is expected to increase. Despite the financial crisis, the industry’s average annual growth rate during the last three years recorded over 20% and a growth of over 30% is forecasted for the next three years.The investment incentives offered by the Romanian Government in the past years in order to attract foreign direct investments, including real estate tax exemptions and preferential tax deductions for acquiring new technology and R&D centres continue to be attractive for potential investors.

MAIN INTERNATIONAL PLAYERS IN BPO in Romania (not via M&A)

Big multinational companies opened at least one centre in Romania during the past years and some of these centres have over 1,000 employees. 80% of the employees have university degrees.The cumulated turnover of the players in the BPM industry in Romania is estimated at 500 million EUR in 2012.The most frequent services provided by the BPO centres in Romania are finance & accounting, customer support, procurement and HR, followed by IT, logistics, order administration, call center, research & analytics and legal process outsourcing.The players active in the Romanian BPM industry are characterised by continuous business process improvement, high quality of services, technological and process innovation and ability to meet the market new requirements.The main BPO centres are located in Bucharest and other large cities, such as Cluj Napoca and Timisoara.Many investors in Shared Service Centers, for example Microsoft and Oracle, announced the expansion of their investment in Romania due to the fact that they applied and accessed EU funds with the purpose to create more jobs on the domestic market.We have various reports on the BPO market in Romania. Please request the Corporate Finance in Europe presentation to find out how we can help you with your purchase of a BPO company in Romania. If you want to learn more about how to buy a Romanian BPO company please visit the page buy a BPO company in Romania.