£43m takeover at Endless-backed outsourcing business

LEEDS-BASED private equity house Endless has sold business process outsourcing specialist Liberata to Outsourcing Inc.

The investment in the £100m-plus turnover business in 2010, as part of a buy-out led by Dermot Joyce and his management team, marked the Yorkshire firm’s first transaction in London. Since then it used Liberata as a vehicle to buy and sell York-based Trustmarque, and the sale last December resulted in a £20m profit.

Although the deal value of the sale of Liberata is undisclosed, the equity value – a measure which combines current and potential value – has been put at £43m.

Outsourcing is a Japanese business with its UK headquarters in Darlington. It has also taken a majority stake in the holding company of London outsourcing provider Allen Lane Consultancy, and the two deals have been funded by a £45m bank loan.

Haruhiko Doi, chairman of Outsourcing, described the deal as one of its largest to date and “a hugely important investment in the UK”.

Liberata is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of business processing outsourcing services to the public sector through its 20 business centres in the UK. It employs 1,400 people with a core focus of improving and streamlining complex operational processes to drive costs savings and transform service management for local authorities and central government departments.

Major clients include contracts with the Ministry of Justice and several of the largest local authorities in the UK.

Charlie Bruin, chief executive of Liberata, will continue to lead the company and its strategy of leveraging innovation and automation in delivering public sector services.

James Woolley, partner at Endless said: “The sale of Liberata brings to an end a successful five-year association with the company.  In that time we have seen the business develop new revenue streams, such as Capacity Grid and Automation Services, as well as grow its BPO operations.  We leave Liberata with many strong growth opportunities and we wish Charlie and OSI all the very best for what should be a very bright future.”

Mr Bruin added: “Following a formal process to find the right strategic buyer for Liberata I am thrilled that we are joining a group that really understands our business and has big ambitions to grow the company in the UK. OSI brings a wealth of experience and resources that will greatly assist Liberata to win new business and to continue to delight its clients.

“There are great opportunities in the rapidly growing business process-as-a-service and technology platform-based BPO markets and Liberata is extremely well positioned to exploit both, now backed by an international scale player.”

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