Capita Mergers and Acquisitions case study

Supporting Mergers and Acquisitions in any language

Translation to support the due diligence process and acquisition by Capita of avocis, a leading provider of customer contact management services in Germany, Switzerland and Austria

Capita Translation and Interpreting (Capita TI) offers a fast, accurate, secure and twenty-four-seven translation service that always takes into account how the translated materials will be used; in this case, as supporting information for one of Capita Group’s biggest acquisitions of 2015.

Capita plc is constantly expanding, and a key part of achieving smooth acquisitions is ensuring that due diligence has been performed on all the relevant documentation. These can include balance sheets, process documents, contracts and personnel records, and where the company operates in a different language, this process can only start once the documents have been translated.

On average, Capita Plc acquires a company on a monthly basis, and has only recently started to expand overseas, meaning that the requirement to translate these kinds of documents is relatively new within Capita Group.

The challenge

In late 2014 Capita started the process of acquiring avocis, a leading provider of customer contact management services with offices in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. avocis, as a market leader in the DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) region, is a large and well-established company with €210m in annual turnover. It therefore had a huge amount of financial, HR and process documents to translate as part of the acquisition process, before due diligence could be carried out by the Capita team.

It therefore had a huge amount of financial, HR and process documents to translate as part of the acquisition process, before due diligence could be carried out by the Capita team.

The acquisition needed to be completed within pre-defined timeframes, with many different milestones and stages along the way, and consequently many of the documents needed to be translated urgently. This was especially challenging as the preparation phase for the acquisition took place over the Christmas and New Year period. 

How Capita TI helped

From the start of the project, Capita TI recognised that agility was going to be essential for delivering this requirement, with potentially complex material needing to be processed urgently. One of the first steps was to assign a dedicated team of Project Managers covering several time zones, who could be ready to process the files, whatever time of day they were sent. These Project Managers were supported by Capita TI’s Vendor Management department, who sourced a pool of qualified linguists, again across several time zones. The linguists were then on stand-by, ready to translate the materials as and when they arrived.

As well as delivering projects, Capita TI’s Project Managers and Account Managers were also available, twenty-four-seven, to resolve any queries and answer questions.

The result

Throughout the translation phase of the project, all the challenging deadlines dictated by the needs of the acquisition process were met by Capita TI without exception. This meant that despite the added aspect of the localisation, the acquisition proceeded smoothly and on schedule. Using the robust processes applied in this instance, Capita TI is now fully ready to support any further expansion Capita may undertake internationally.

Excellent results promptly delivered

Capita TI’s robust service delivery led to a number of excellent results in terms of turnaround time. A 4000 word file requested at 8pm on a Friday was translated by 11am on Saturday morning, and a number of weekend deliveries enabled Capita HR to meet critical Monday morning deadlines.

What Capita Mergers and Acquisitions said:

“We were delighted with the great service we received from Capita TI, especially at such a challenging time of year. They were always available to help with queries and met very tight deadlines we set for them – they definitely made the acquisition a lot smoother from a localisation point of view”

Sue Davey, Acquisitions Project Manager, Capita Group HQ

“Capita TI provided us with everything we needed to make the acquisition as pain-free as possible. Their proactive approach to meeting our tight deadlines meant that the process went smoothly, and we have no doubt that Capita TI would be able to help other international businesses with their global acquisitions.”

 Marcus Meloni, Divisional Director, Capita Europe