With EBRD among shareholders, CallPoint wants new call center in Romania, eyes acquisitions

CallPoint New Europe, a business process outsourcing company based in Eastern Europe, has received a EUR 3 million investment from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The EBRD acquired 37.5 percent in the company, allowing it to grow both in Romania and Bulgaria in the years to come. CallPoint New Europe wants to open a new call center in Romania by December this year, Gregoire Vigroux (in picture), director in charge of business development with CallPoint New Europe tells Romania-Insider.com. “This new site will be employing 100 people at first and will be reaching 400 seats after 12 months,” he says, without yet disclosing the name of the city where the new call center will be opened. The company already runs a 400-people call center in Bucharest. “Another significant investment we have made is the launching of a new service: Community Management and Social Media Monitoring,” Vigroux goes on. CallPoint’s turnover increased from 7.5 million EUR in 2010 to 9 million EUR in 2011. “Thanks to the EBRD financial support, we plan to reach 11 million EUR in 2012, and 15 million in 2013. Our EBITDA has been 16 percent in 2011,” according to Gregoire Vigroux. External growth is also an option the company takes into account. “We are also looking for financially stable and dynamic companies to buy,” says Vigroux. The call center and BPO company has delivery sites in Romania (Bucharest) as well as Bulgaria (Sofia and Plovdiv). It also has sales offices in the US, UK, and France. CallPoint was founded in 2004 and wants to reach 4,000 employees across the region by 2013, from a current staff of 900 across its three offices. EBRD was not the only institutional investor the company has attracted. In 2008, Global Finance already invested EUR 1 million in the company through its Growth Fund. The contact center industry in Romania employs over 20,000 people in over 250 centers, Gregoire Vigroux estimates. “With an estimated turnover of 120 million EUR this year, this industry is still growing. In the next five years, many experts foresee that its value could even increase to EUR 350 to EUR 400 million,” he concludes. Read Gregoire Vigroux' expat profile here. Corina Saceanu, corina@romania-insider.com (photo source: CallPoint)