Silverfleet Capital backs the buyout of Competence Call Center

Silverfleet Capital, the European private equity firm has agreed to buy Competence Call Center Holding GmbH (“CCC”), one of Europe’s leading call centre operators, from Ardian. Completion is subject to obtaining competition clearance. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price and other details of the transaction. Silverfleet Capital and management’s plans are to develop the business organically in existing markets and through selected acquisitions with an emphasis on international expansion.

Founded in Austria in 1998, CCC today employs more than 4,500 staff, offers services in 28 languages and has handled several hundred million customer contacts since its foundation. CCC currently operates out of 11 locations in 7 countries; Austria, France, Germany, Romania, Switzerland, Slovakia and Turkey and has a market leading position in German speaking Europe. CCC has a comprehensive service offering including incoming & outgoing calls, e-mail, fax and letter correspondence, live chat, social media and other digital services. For 2014, CCC plans to generate more than €100m of revenues.

Guido May, the Silverfleet Capital partner responsible for German speaking Europe, who led the investment commented: “CCC is an extremely high quality business with an excellent management team that is completely dedicated to delivering the best call centre experience to their partners. They are industry experts in building and maintaining personalised relationships between world famous consumer brands and their consumers. We look forward to supporting their continued growth and the development of the business across Europe.”

Christian Legat, Chief Executive Officer of CCC commented: “We are excited about the next stage of our company’s growth and I am confident that Silverfleet is the ideal partner to support CCC´s goals and visions. They fully understand and back our customer centric approach, as they have investments in multiple geographies and customer facing industries across Europe. We look forward to a mutually beneficial and prosperous partnership.”

Silverfleet Capital has significant experience of investing in Companies operating in the services sector across Europe. Current and previous service sector investments include: Ipes, the Guernsey based fund administrators; TMF, the outsourced company administrators based in Holland; Astron, the UK based document BPO business and orizon, the German temporary labour provider.

The Silverfleet Capital team that worked on the transaction also included Joachim Braun, Klaus Maurer and Falko Westphalen, who are based in Silverfleet Capital’s Munich office.

Silverfleet Capital was advised by Blue Corporate Finance (corporate finance), Clifford Chance (legal) and Sherman & Sterling (banking legal), PwC (financial & tax), Oliver Wyman (commercial), n+1 (debt advisory) and Willis (insurance). Bank financing will be provided by (Bank of Ireland and DZ Bank).