AXA has entered into an agreement to sell Bluefin’s employee benefits consulting business, Bluefin Corporate Consulting (BCC), to Capita plc for a cash consideration of £50 million on a cash-free, debt-free basis. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to complete in the second quarter of 2012.

AXA will retain the Bluefin trading name. Bluefin’s other operations, including Bluefin Insurance Group, which is core to AXA’s Commercial Lines operation, and Bluefin Personal Consulting, which provides wealth management services, do not form part of this transaction.

Paul Evans, Group Chief Executive of AXA UK and Ireland commented: “Following the sale of the AXA Life business in 2010, and in particular the corporate pensions business, the consulting services offered by BCC are no longer aligned to our long term strategy and core lines of business. We are pleased to have entered into an agreement with Capita which will ensure that BCC and its customers benefit from the scale and market presence offered by becoming part of Capita’s enlarged employee benefits operation.”

Source:   www.top-consultant.com

LONDON — Capita’s financial services consultancy practice today announces plans to strengthen its presence in the area of regulatory change. This is in response to significant demand from the market. As regulatory change is becoming more frequent, financial services organisations cannot risk regulatory non compliance – for example with Solvency II and the Retail Distribution Review – as this can result in serious repercussions from the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

Capita already has a number of customers to which it provides regulatory change support, including high profile retail banks and insurance companies. The business has grown from zero to 40 consultants this year alone and Capita has also acquired Xayce – the specialist financial services consultant – in February this year to further support the growth of the practice, especially in the regulatory change arena.

Tony Tarquini, head of financial services at Capita Consulting, said: “We have identified that there is significant need for pragmatic, operational consulting for regulatory matters. We have been able to apply the expertise that we have honed through delivering services to the wider Capita Group, and also external clients to develop a really strong offering to the market. What we offer is not strategy or advisory services but help with turning the vision into an operating reality.

“We are finding that the third pillar of Solvency II, which focuses on disclosure and transparency requirements, is not being properly addressed yet. This is because so much effort so far has had to go into pillar one, capital requirements. The market is telling us that there is need for specialists, such as Capita, to help develop frameworks for data management during implementation and thereafter. This will help meet the data challenges posed by the third pillar of Solvency II and also give better control over data going forward.”

Source:  www.top-consultant.com

The acquisition of Red Procurement and Business Systems is part Capita’s long-term strategy to grow and develop its procurement consultancy expertise.

Capita acquires procurement consultancy

Capita has acquired Red Procurement and Business Systems Limited. Red provides expert procurement consultancy services to the public and private sectors, identifying cost savings in the procurement process. Its clients include BDR Thermea, Anite Telecoms and a number of other FTSE100 market leading companies including Capita.

The acquisition sits well with Capita’s long-term strategy to grow and develop its procurement consultancy expertise, providing further support to existing and future customers, and also generating even greater efficiencies within the Group.

Commenting on the acquisition, Keith Rowling, managing director, Capita’s consulting business, said: “Red is already well known to Capita through the services it provides to some of our existing contracts and so the business will complement and enhance our procurement offering. This acquisition will not only allow for the team at Red to develop their growth opportunities but also internalise the spend on procurement consultancy across the Group.”

Simon Smith, managing director, Red Procurement and Business Systems Limited, said: “The management team at Red already has a strong working relationship with Capita and we believe that the values of the Group will enhance and complement our own. Becoming part of such a large and robust organisation will allow us to accelerate the development of our combined procurement proposition and for our consultants to continue to focus on client delivery and developing expertise.”

Red currently has 19 employees, based in the West Midlands. All employees will be transferring to Capita.

Soure:  www.top-consultant.com

Capita chief executive Paul Pindar has challenged analysts’ suggestions that the group’s sales growth is slowing – insisting that the days of double-digit organic growth are not over and that there are vast areas of government outsourcing work still to be tapped.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Pindar likened today’s situation to the recession of the early 1990s, when top-line growth slowed for a couple of years and took off as the economy came out of recession. He said: “If you look at the underlying strength in the business at the moment, the margin growth is still looking encouraging, as is profit. The environment for acquisitions is extremely healthy.”

As the UK’s largest outsourcing group and a leading player in the public sector market, Capita has grown revenue at a compound annual rate of 26% over the past 10 years. But analysts say this could slip, pointing to a November trading statement that showed Capita had won £1 billion of new business this year, but £814 million was secured in the first half, meaning the win rate slowed in the second half of the year.

Despite this Pindar remained bullish on the prospects for outsourcing, though he highlighted government reluctance to set up major IT projects in the run-up to the general election and concerns about a potentially hung parliament with no clear decision making. He remained adamant, however, that any new government will see outsourcing as a means of cutting IT spend and said Capita would not lower its prices to win public sector contracts.

Source: MCN Direct Newswire