Sitel is owned by the French billionaire family Mulliez.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin A multi-billion dollar merger in the call center industry has collapsed. The owners of the Luxembourg Majorel, above all the Gütersloh media giant Bertelsmann, have broken off talks about a merger with the twice as large competitor Sitel, as Majorel announced on Monday.
Apparently there were disputes with the owner of Sitel, the French billionaire family Mulliez: Despite all efforts to conclude “given the overall economic situation, it was not possible to agree on the structure” of the approximately 8.7 billion euro merger, Majorel said. The audit (due diligence) had already been completed.
In June, the basic features of a takeover had already been agreed. Sitel founder and CEO Laurent Uberti spoke of Majorel as the “perfect partner”. Uberti should also direct the new company. Majorel boss Thomas Mackenbrock should be responsible for the European business.
Bertelsmann merged the call centers of its subsidiary Arvato with those of Moroccan partner Saham in 2018 and listed them on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange under the name Majorel in autumn 2021. In 2021, the company with 75,000 employees achieved sales of 1.75 billion euros and an EBITDA of 316 million euros.
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Sitel is owned by the French billionaire family Mulliez, who have become rich with companies such as the supermarket chain Auchan and the sporting goods retailer Decathlon. It should also become the largest shareholder of the merged call center operator with 45 percent. Bertelsmann wanted to dilute its stake from 39.5 to initially 17.3 percent.
For Bertelsmann boss Thomas Rabe it is the second defeat in his efforts to make subsidiaries of the media giant more powerful with the help of mergers. It was only on Friday that the merger of the French RTL subsidiary M6 with its competitor TF1 failed due to resistance from the antitrust authorities.
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