Industry: Business Services
Type: Disposal
Transaction Value: £28m

Business: The Business Process Outsourcing division of Hays plc was made up of Hays’ billing, call centre and transaction processing operation in the UK, Poland, Sri Lanka and India; Hays Consulting & Solutions Group - a complex data and records management information systems provider; and Hays Payroll Bureau – a provider of outsourced payroll services to a range of blue-chip clients.

Deal: The Billing, Call Centre and Transaction Processing activities were sold to Astron Ltd (formerly HMSO); Hays Consulting & Solutions Group were sold to Northgate Information Solutions plc; and Hays Payroll Bureau was sold to Specialist Computer Services Ltd. The aggregate consideration for the BPO division was £27.5m.

Our Role: McInnes Corporate Finance were appointed shortly after Hays plc publicly announced that following a comprehensive strategic review all non-recruitment related businesses were to be divested or de-merged. Our remit was to prepare the businesses within the BPO division for sale, draft a sales document for the division as a whole and for its constituent parts and to identify, communicate and negotiate with a significant number of interested parties. McInnes Corporate Finance were integral to the decision to sell the constituent parts of the division separately in order to maximise proceeds with the greatest level of certainty of deliverability in the shortest possible timeframe. The ultimate proceeds received were significantly greater than the expectations of the Hays plc board and their brokers’ consensus.