Convergys Buys Outsourcing Biz

CINCINNATI and NEW YORK -- Convergys Corporation (NYSE: CVG), a global leader in providing customer care, human resources, and billing services, and Deloitte Consulting Outsourcing LLC today announced a definitive agreement under which Convergys will acquire the Finance and Accounting (F&A) Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) business of Deloitte Consulting Outsourcing LLC, a subsidiary of Deloitte Consulting LLP.

Deloitte Consulting Outsourcing and Convergys expect to close on the transaction as soon as practicable. Financial terms are not being disclosed. The acquisition will be neutral to Convergys' 2005 earnings per share.

Based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Deloitte Consulting Outsourcing's F&A BPO business was founded more than 10 years ago and provides finance and accounting outsourcing services to clients in multiple industries ranging from communications to retail to professional services. It provides business processing and technology services supporting clients' "order to cash," "procure to payment," financial reporting, reconciliations, budgeting, and treasury management functions. Deloitte Consulting Outsourcing provides these services from a shared service center in Tulsa and at client locations.

"This is a strong fit for Convergys, which continues to address the full service outsourcing needs of its clients by continually expanding its capabilities portfolio," said Katrina Menzigian, Vice President of Business Solutions and BPO services, IDC. "In today's highly competitive market, companies are finding outsourcing to be a strategically attractive alternative to internally operating certain business functions like human resource management, customer care, and finance and accounting. As a global outsource service provider, Convergys is addressing a growing trend to outsource finance and accounting functions so that companies can focus on their product or service delivery instead of this internal administrative operation."

"Given our strong, continuing outsourcing businesses, it was a difficult strategic decision to exit the F&A BPO market," said Robert C. Frazzini, Managing Director of Deloitte Consulting Outsourcing. "We believe, however, that the decision is in the best interests of our clients and our people, given Convergys' scale, world-class platform, and leadership in outsourcing."

"Like the HR BPO market where Convergys is already an established global leader, the finance and accounting BPO market is a fast-growing area of business process outsourcing. This acquisition is a strategic extension of Convergys' service offerings and will leverage Convergys' existing HR and customer care business processing expertise and experience, advanced technologies, global reach, and strong client relationships," said Steve Rolls, Executive Vice President, Global Customer Management and Employee Care for Convergys. "This acquisition provides proven F&A BPO expertise developed over the last 10 years by one of the leading financial services organizations. At the same time, it positions Convergys to expand our footprint to a whole new horizontal market and accelerate revenue growth in our customer management business."

Convergys Corp.