Karel Komárek's KKCG investment group has sold the largest operator of contact centres in the Czech Republic. Conectart, which now operates call centres in eight towns in the country, employing over a thousand operators, will become part of the portfolio of the Genesis Private Equity Fund III (GPEF III) of the Genesis Capital group. The transaction is expected to be concluded in the summer and is subject to approval by the Office for the Protection of Competition.
The change of owner takes place on the basis of a contract signed on Thursday, May 14 after eight years when, under the leadership of the KKCG group, Conectart became the largest provider of business process outsourcing in the Czech Republic. “When we acquired what was the 1188 information line, many strategic decisions awaited us. Thanks to them and our work with the company's current management, we have built Conectart up to the number one on the domestic contact centre market. I am delighted to be handing over a successful company to a promising new owner,” says Michal Tománek, KKCG's investment director for technology. In saying this, he confirms the direction taken by the KKCG group, which will now focus mainly on large-scale projects in IT, entertainment, and energy.
In recent months, Conectart announced its entry to markets abroad. “This January we acquired new clients on the Slovak market, where we feel there is huge potential. The current pandemic situation also works in our favour. We have verified in practice that we can work in extreme conditions without quality fluctuations or staff shortages. We are ready to grow. We express our gratitude for the great work done by the KKCG group, and at the same time we are very much looking forward to working with Genesis Capital,” explains Petr Studnička, CEO of Conectart.
Entry into other markets in the Central European region is the domain of the development capital (private equity) funds of the Genesis Capital group. “We have been helping Czech companies with strong growth potential for more than 20 years. Conectart fits perfectly into our technology portfolio, to which we have begun to give greater attention in recent years. They come from an innovative field with high added value. In addition, in the Central and Eastern European region this market is not competitively saturated,” says Martin Viliš, partner of Genesis Capital Equity and advisor to the GPEF III fund.
Conectart, the largest current operator of contact centres, was established in 2016 through targeted development by the KKCG group. Four years earlier, the group had bought the 1188 information line from operator O2 and begun looking for other business opportunities for the call centre, resulting in the creation of a standalone company. Now, its most important clients include brands such as Samsung, Vodafone, AmRest, travel agency Fischer, and MND. It engenders trust through his professionalism and fair approach, in which it places special emphasis on quality management and information security. Conectart is one of the few contact centres that boasts an ISO 9001 quality management certificate, and so far the only one to hold ISO 27001 certification, demonstrating a high level of data security.
Media contacts:
Conectart
Barbora Tillová
Marketing Director
Conectart s.r.o.
tel.: +420 728 185 630
KKCG
Dana Dvořáková
Corporate Communication Director
KKCG a.s.
tel.: +420 602 372 834
Genesis Capital Equity (represented by PR agency CHM Communications):
Kamil Chalupa
CHM Communications
tel.: +420 602 865 834
chalupa@chmc.cz
About Conectart
Conectart has been providing comprehensive contact center services to Czech and foreign customers for over 10 years. It has a number of major companies in its portfolio, such as Samsung, Vodafone, MND,Česká Spořitelna,AmRest or SAZKAmobil. Conectart was created by merging the two companies Informační linky and Direct Communication. IN 2017, Conectart acquired another contact center Quality Brands. The merger of these companies created the largest service provider in the field of "Business Process Outsourcing" (BPO) in the Czech Republic where it currently employs over 1000 employees. The company Conectart s.r.o. will be part of the GPEF III portfolio of the Genesis Capital Group after the completion of the ongoing final transaction. For more information, visit www.conectart.co.uk/home-en/
About KKCG
KKCG is an international investment group managing more than EUR 6 billion in book value of assets and employing about 6,000 employees. KKCG holds stakes in such corporations as MND Group, SAZKA Group, ARICOMA Group, US Methanol, Springtide Ventures, and others. KKCG operates in 18 countries worldwide. For more information, visit www.kkcg.com/en
About Genesis Capital
Genesis Capital provides advisory to private equity funds (development capital) offering financing for growth and development to small and medium companies in Central Europe. Since its foundation in 1999, Genesis Capital has advised five private equity funds with a total volume exceeding EUR 200 million. These funds have already supported more than 50 companies and provided over CZK 3 billion for their development. It was also due to the cooperation with Genesis Capital that many of them rose to the top positions within their fields of activity.
For more information, visit www.genesis.cz/en