Infotech Lead India: Serco has acquired the arm of MENA Business Services (MBS) in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi Arabian business has 150 employees, based in Al Khobar, near Dammam, providing IT and BPO services to Saudi Aramco.
This is a milestone for Serco’s Global BPO business which entered the Middle East market last year by setting up a center in Dubai.
The Saudi acquisition brings additional capabilities to support expansion in areas of technical and back office support in the Saudi Arabian Market.
It adds to Serco’s significant global BPO capabilities which already provides services to international clients from 100 centres in 12 countries and employs more than 50,000 people.
“This acquisition is a key catalyst for Serco Global Services to enter the emerging Saudi Arabian market. MBS aligns with our vision of providing high quality services to blue chip companies around the world and it brings with it a very talented workforce and deep customer partnerships,” said Susir Kumar, executive chairman, Serco Global Services.
Middle East & Africa region is a key market for Serco’s BPO business. With a presence in UAE, South Africa and now Saudi Arabia, Serco has already established a strong foothold in the region.
The Middle East BPO market is estimated at £1.75b and growing at about 17 percent, according to Datamonitor. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) are the two largest BPO markets in the Middle East region and together represent three-quarters of the market.
Bhupender Singh, chief executive officer of Serco Global Services AMEAA, said: “We look forward to bringing our best-of-breed services such as Customer Service, Marketing, Finance & Accounting and other back-office shared services to the Saudi market and in the process hiring and up-skilling the local Saudi talent pool and engaging in long term relationships with Saudi corporations.”
Serco’s BPO business has over 52,000 employees across 100 locations, with a presence in 11 countries providing the complete spectrum of business services to customers in the public and private sector around the world.
