EU – Baltic States, Investments, Latvia, Mergers and take-overs, Technology

This acquisition is part of Webhelp's strategy to actively pursue geographical expansion as well as reinforce its sectorial expertise, and will allow Webhelp to offer its clients services from four new countries, each with strong multilingual capabilities.

Runway, headquartered in Riga, will bring an additional nine multilingual centers and 1,000 people across Latvia and new countries for Webhelp; Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Spain to the Group, as well as additional expertise in not just sectors such as travel and consumer goods but also activities such as accounting, IT, and HR outsourcing, complementing Webhelp’s existing portfolio.

Frederic Jousset, co-founder of Webhelp, said that Runway was an excellent business with a strong track record of delivering first-class customer experience on behalf of Scandinavian and international clients. "We are very excited about joining forces with the company, its management team and employees, to expand Webhelp's global footprint and support the company in the Scandinavian market with the resources available from our group organization and investors," he said.

Uldis Prieditis, CEO of Runway BPO, said: “Ever since Runway was established, 15 years ago, we have been driven by the ambition to become a well-known and reputable partner in the Scandinavian BPO market with a strong focus on excellent CRM experience, particularly in terms of quality delivered and tailor-made solutions provided."

"Our efforts have resulted in long-lasting partnerships with our clients, many of which we've been with for more than 10 years now. (...) Our ambition is now to expand internationally as well. With this focus a change in ownership to the Webhelp Group is a perfect fit for the company, its clients and employees. The increased growth opportunities will help support employment and the best practice sharing with our sister companies within the international group will help us to bring Runway to an even higher level,” he said.

Webhelp is a global business process outsourcer (BPO), specializing in customer experience and payment management in addition to sales and marketing services across voice, social and digital channels. It operates from more than 110 sites in 33 countries with an approximately 40,000-strong team. Its partners include some of the world's most progressive brands including Sky, Shop Direct, Bouygues, Direct Energie, KPN, Vodafone, La Redoute, Michael Kors and Valentino. Webhelp is owned by management and KKR, a leading global investment firm, as of March 2016.

Founded in 2003 by Nils Sundling, Runway is a nearshoring partner for Scandinavian and other European businesses looking for outsourcing services. Runway BPO is an all-included BPO service company, capable of providing various outsourcing services that are individually designed for each client's specific needs and requirements. Currently Runway serves their clients with over 1,000 people from nine locations in five countries - Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine, and Spain.

Latvia's Runway was founded in 2004, and its current largest shareholders are Norway's Dasha Group (46.21 percent), and BaltCap Private Equity Fund L.P. (38.78 percent) registered in Jersey. It closed 2016 with a profit of EUR 623,990 on a turnover of EUR 20.274 million.