Serco acquires MENA Business Services subsidiary in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Process Outsourcing Provid Serco Global Services today said that it has acquired the Saudi Arabian arm of MENA Business Services FZ LLC. MBS is a fully-owned Dubai-registered company that provides business process outsourcing (BPO) services across the Middle East.

The Saudi Arabian business has 150 employees, based in Al Khobar, near Dammam, providing high quality IT and BPO services to Saudi Aramco, (Arabian Refining & Marketing Company) the world's largest petroleum business.

Serco, which entered the Middle East market last year by setting up a centre in Dubai, said the Saudi acquisition brings additional skills and capabilities to support expansion in areas of technical and back office support in the Saudi Arabian market, the Middle-Eastern region's largest economy. 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.

Susir Kumar, executive chairman, Serco, said, ''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. We are delighted to welcome the MBS Saudi management team, employees and clients within the Serco fold.''

Chief executive officer of Serco Global Services AMEAA, Bhupender Singh, said, ''The Middle East & Africa region is a key market for Serco's BPO business. With a presence in UAE, South Africa and now Saudi Arabia, we have established a strong foothold in the region. 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.''

The Middle East BPO market is estimated at £1.75b and growing at about 17 per cent (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.