EBRD makes EUR 3 million equity investment in Call Point New Europe

The EBRD has signed a EUR 3 million equity investment in CallPoint New Europe JSC, a mid-sized provider of business processes outsourcing (BPO) and client interaction services for clients in Europe and further abroad. The move is meant to expand the bank’s support to knowledge based investors in Bulgaria and Romania

CallPoint New Europe is a company established in Bulgaria in 2004. With its roughly 800 employees located in Sofia and Plovdiv (Bulgaria) and Bucharest (Romania), the company offers a wide range of business processes outsourcing and client interaction services to industries such as travel, financial services, retail/e-commerce, software and telecommunications. The services are delivered in up to 16 European languages and consist of customer support, telemarketing, debt collection, marketing surveys, technical support and to a lesser extent HR outsourcing services.

With the EBRD’s equity investment, CallPoint New Europe will be able to expand its operational capacity in Bulgaria and Romania and improve its competitiveness among mid-sized providers of business processes outsourcing services with the ambition of becoming a regional player.

The BPO sector has been expanding in Central and Eastern Europe in recent years. With a greater ability to provide multi-lingual European language services, as well as benefiting from a well-educated and cost-effective labour force, this sector is expected to grow further as companies are outsourcing their non-core services in the current challenging market environment.

This is EBRD’s first investment in the Bulgarian BPO sector and also the first small equity investment in Bulgaria utilising the EBRD – Italy Local Enterprise Facility (LEF). LEF was introduced in Bulgaria from January 2011, following several successful years in other countries around the Balkans.