The French telecommunications firm Altice, through its subsidiary of Moroccan origin Intelcia, has completed the purchase of Grupo Unisono, a Spanish company specialized in providing contact center services that counts among its clients Banco Santander, BBVA, ING, Iberdrola, Naturgy, Endesa, Cepsa, Vodafone, Virgin or Abertis, among others, according to market sources to ‘elEconomista’.
Intelcia has acquired 100% of the capital of Unisono, 51% owned by its founder and president, María del Pino Velázquez, and 49% by Ángel Corcóstegui, former CEO of Banco Santander Central Hispano (BSCH) and founder of Magnum Capital, and by Baldomero Falcones, former CEO of FCC and former director of Santander.
The value of the operation is estimated in the market at around 200 million euros. Unísono, created in 1999, annually generates a gross operating result (ebitda) of close to 25 million euros and a turnover of 147 million euros. The company, focused on improving the customer experience through ‘multi-channel contact centers’, business process services (BPS) and consultancy, has 16 operations centers distributed between Spain, Chile, Colombia and the United Kingdom, totaling about 9,000 employees.
With this acquisition, Intelcia lands in Spain and expands its activities in Europe and Latin America
With this acquisition, Intelcia, headquartered in Casablanca (Morocco), lands in Spain and expands its activities in Europe, where it was present until now in France and Portugal, and in Latin America, where it has activities in Colombia -in addition to several Caribbean countries. such as Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. The company also has operations in Africa (Morocco, Senegal, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mauritius, Cameroon and South Africa), and in the United States.
ambitious goals
The purchase of Unisono will allow Intelcia to advance in its commitment to become one of the world’s largest groups in customer management and technological innovation and reach a turnover of 700 million euros in 2021. It will have 35,000 employees in 18 countries, with 72 centers managing more than 300 clients. With the horizon of the year 2025, its objective is to achieve a turnover of 1,500 million euros. For this, the firm intends to continue its international expansion with new centers in America, the Caribbean and other European markets. A strategy for which it has the support of its main shareholder, the French telecommunications group Altice, which acquired 65% of the capital in 2016.
Intelcia was born barely a year after Unísono, in 2000, and in the last 21 years it has made other acquisitions such as Eurocall or Atento Morocco. Intelcia’s clients include large international groups such as Google, Microsoft, Orange, Axa, Toyota and Bosch. The sources consulted assure that the initial plan of the Moroccan company is to do without the Unísono brand. At the head of Intelcia’s Latin America and Spain division will be Sandra Gibert, until now CEO of Unisono, a position in which she has held since 2011.
The sale of Unisono by Intelcia abounds in the movements in the market of companies specialized in contact centers and outsourcing at a global level. In Spain, in 2019 Santander and Pai Partners sold 80% of Konecta to the president of the firm, José María Pacheco, other executives and the ICG fund.