The French company Webhelp, controlled by Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL), has entered into exclusive negotiations with its American competitor Concentrix in order to merge and create "a
world leader in customer experience
", able to compete with the giant Teleperformance, according to a press release released Thursday.
The transaction, still subject to the authorization of the regulatory authorities, values Webhelp at 4.4 billion euros, it is specified.
“
It does not show any significant redundancy, either in terms of location or in terms of teams
,” the document states.
The new group, whose brand name has yet to be defined, will be led by Chris Caldwell, the current CEO of Concentrix.
With around 9.8 billion in turnover in 2023, it will be big enough to compete with the current world leader in call centers Teleperformance, of French origin.
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GBL, owner since 2019 of 60% of Webhelp, will become the first shareholder of the new group with 12.9% of the ordinary shares in circulation, plus options on additional securities if certain thresholds are reached, he specified in a separate release.
The holding company of the late Belgian billionaire Albert Frère will also hold a claim of around 500 million euros on the new group, payable on the second anniversary of the transaction.
2.5 billion euros in turnover in 2022
The leader of Webhelp Olivier Duha will take the vice-presidency of the group's board of directors, which will remain listed on the Nasdaq, the American electronic stock exchange.
He is "
delighted with this industrial marriage with a lot of synergies
", in particular a "
geographic complementarity and customer portfolio
", he told AFP.
“
In France too, this can make it possible to imagine even stronger growth on the territory and no risk of job destruction
,” he specified.
Finally, the new group will be able to invest in technologies, in particular artificial intelligence and conversational robots, which could make certain professions disappear and would bring “opportunities
for creating value
” according to Olivier Duha.
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Co-founded in 2000 by Olivier Duha and Frédéric Jousset (now retired), Webhelp, headquartered in Paris, now has 125,000 employees worldwide, and has developed in particular in Latin America and Africa.
In 2022, it recorded 2.5 billion euros in turnover.
Concentrix is a global group that provides technological solutions for customer relations in many sectors, with more than 6 billion dollars in revenue in 2022. The title of the American group lost nearly 6% on Thursday in the exchanges preceding the opening of trading. markets.