Acquisition of Webhelp by Groupe Bruxelles Lambert and its management
FR
BE
Sycomore Corporate Finance acted as exclusive financial advisor to Webhelp, its co-founders and management team.
In August 2019, Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, an established Belgian investment holding company, announced the signing of the acquisition of Webhelp, a global leader in the CRM – BPO space.
Following the transaction, Webhelp’s co-founders will retain a significant minority stake in the Company.
Rationale
Webhelp is a world leading business process outsourcer (BPO) specialising in customer experience and payment services, in addition to sales and marketing services across voice, social and digital channels.
The Company develops innovative solutions combining consulting services, technological solutions and omni-channel processing capabilities thanks to its 50,000 employees and more than 150 sites in 36 countries.
The Company has developed long-term partnerships with blue ship global groups including Sky, Shop Direct, Vodafone, La Redoute, KPN, Direct Energie and Valentino.
Since its acquisition by KKR in 2015, the Company has more than doubled its revenues and is expected to achieve a turnover of €1.5 billion in 2019. This performance is the result of a dynamic organic and external growth strategy that GBL aims to maintain and accelerate with the support of the Company’s co-founders and management team.
Groupe Bruxelles Lambert is an established Belgian investment holding company and the second largest listed investment company in Europe.
Groupe Bruxelles Lambert is a leading investor in Europe, focused on long-term value creation and relying on a stable and supportive ownership by the Frère and Desmarais families. GBL strives to maintain a high quality, diversified portfolio of global companies, leaders in their sectors, with whom it can contribute to value creation as an active professional investor. Current investment portfolio of GBL includes Adidas, Pernod Ricard, SGS, Lafarge Holcim, Imerys, Unimore, GEA, Ontex and Sinna Capital.
As of end of August 2019, GBL had indicative net asset value of c. €18 billion and a market capitalisation of c. €13 billion.