Home  |  About Us  |  Press Room  |  2004  |  THUS announces agreement to sell its Contact Centre business to RHL

2004

THUS Group plc today announces an agreement to sell its Contact Centre business to Response Handling Limited (RHL), one of the UK's leading contact centre and customer management companies and a subsidiary of Murray International Holdings, one of Scotland's largest private companies.

The Contact Centres provide outsourced inbound and outbound calling capability to a wide variety of major companies based in the UK.

The agreement is subject to the completion of a number of terms and conditions, including the sub lease of three call centre properties, with completion envisaged by 31 July 2004. At 31 March 2004, the Contact Centres employed 961 people on a full and part time basis. Following this announcement, THUS is now in a position to consult with its employees on this intended transfer.

The value of this transaction to THUS is expected to be approximately £4 million. Proceeds from this transaction will total £1.75 million with £1 million payable in cash on completion, and £750,000 subject to an earnout over the remainder of this financial year, and payable shortly thereafter. In addition, on completion THUS will retain the working capital of the Contact Centre business, which is estimated to be £2.25 million.

Proceeds of sale will contribute to THUS's working capital.

Turnover for the Contact Centres was £21.7 million for the year ending 31 March 2004 (2003: £24.6 million). The division made a loss before tax of £1.0 million last year and the net book value of the fixed assets is £3.0 million.

Commenting on today's announcement William Allan, Chief Executive, THUS, said:

"THUS's Contact Centres have not been a core part of our investment strategy in our UK national network and national services capability and have continuously been unprofitable at the profit before tax level since our flotation. We believe this disposal is in the best interests of our shareholders and will sharpen our focus on our key growth areas of data, telecommunication and Internet protocol based services. The agreement also protects the best interests of our customers and will ensure continuity and quality customer service.

"In addition to the above agreement, THUS will develop its relationship with RHL to become its primary supplier of telecommunication services."

RHL Executive Chairman, John McClelland, said:

"The acquisition of the contact centre operation of THUS Group plc ensures that RHL is firmly established as one of the UK's top five contact centres with an enlarged annual turnover exceeding £45 million and over 2,200 employees."

John Boyle, Chief Executive of RHL, said:

"We are now well placed to provide a wide variety of contact centre services to leading organisations across all customer segments. While RHL has always provided advanced technology to assist clients with high quality customer management, this deal demonstrates our determination to build one of Europe's leading contact centre businesses.

"The agreement also provides THUS with the safeguard of dealing with an organisation that will work in many ways as its partner, with RHL providing contact centre services to THUS customers, while also extending its own use of THUS telecom services through all our contact centres."