Croatia's Meritus, UK-based Concentric Technologies agree to set up 51/49 JV

Croatian business process outsourcing (BPO) services provider Meritus Ulaganja (M+ Group) [ZSE:MRUL] said that its unit Meritus Upravljanje plans to establish a 51/49 joint venture company with UK-based Concentric Technologies in a transaction valued at 8 million euro ($9 million).

The new company will be established in Croatia, becoming an owner of the IT businesses of its founders, Meritus Ulaganja said in a statement earlier this week.

For the purpose, Meritus Upravljanje and Concentric Technologies have signed an investment agreement and an agreement on the regulation of relations of the shareholders.

Under the agreement, each party will allocate its IT business to the capital reserves of the new JV company.

The completion of the transaction is pending the required legal and shareholder approvals.

Concentric is a leading customer interaction software solutions provider, present in the UK, Hungary, Romania and the US. The company and its subsidiaries employ more than 110 people and reported 10 million euro in consolidated revenue for 2019, the statement reads.

Earlier in 2020, M+ Group completed the acquisition of its Turkish peer CMC owned by UK-based private equity firm Mid Europa Partners, thus becoming the largest BPO company in Southeast Europe. It now employs more than 7,000 people and is one of the largest private companies in Croatia.

M+ Group currently provides services to more than 220 clients from 58 countries. Its clients include Deutsche Telekom, NCR, Microsoft, RWE, Bosch, DHL, Siemens, Carlsberg, Raiffeisen, Addiko, Slovenian lender NKBM, and Croatia's Atlantic Grupa, among others.