BSG Clearing Solutions North America, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Billing Services Group Limited (AIM: BILL), a leading clearing and settlement, payment and financial risk management solutions group, has announced the acquisition of VoiceLog, LLC’s third party verification (TPV) business. VoiceLog is the world’s leading provider of third party verification services. The all-cash deal values VoiceLog at US$15.63M and will be financed from the existing resources and facilities of the Group. The transaction closed on Friday 30th of June.
Highlights of the transaction include:
* Immediate earnings contribution;
* fully complementary to existing BSG operations and BSG customers;
* broadens BSG’s customer base to include utility groups and financial services companies;
* further diversifies the Company’s revenue streams through the wide array of call-centre services;
* consistent with BSG’s stated growth strategy.
Commenting on the acquisition, Roland J. Bopp, CEO of BSG, said: “VoiceLog’s third party verification business has a great reputation in the industry and offers us considerable benefits of scale and market penetration. Their complementary services reinforce our business proposition and for over 5 years, we’ve cultivated a relationship that makes this a very natural conclusion. I am delighted to welcome the VoiceLog team to BSG.â€
About VoiceLog, LLC
Founded in 1996, VoiceLog, LLC has grown from an original idea into the world’s leading provider of third party verification services, with over 300 clients in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. Following the acquisition, 30 employees including VoiceLog founder Larry Leikin will remain with the business. Mr. Leikin will continue in his role as General Manager of the TPV business for BSG.
During the year ended 31 December 2005 the TPV business recorded unaudited revenues of $7.6 million and net income before taxation of $2.4 million after charging $0.5 million of depreciation and amortisation. The business had unaudited assets of $1.8 million at 31 December 2005. This information has been extracted from unaudited segment information contained in the audited accounts of VoiceLog, LLC at and for the 12 months ended 31 December 2005.
The company has unrivalled expertise in principal areas of third party verification, E911 notification, and electronic verification. Its software and services are capable of transacting in 24 different spoken languages.
* Third Party Verification (“TPVâ€): VoiceLog, LLC is contracted by telecom providers, utility groups and financial services companies to gain independent, authoritative confirmation that companies or individuals have agreed to change to new service providers. In the U.S., VoiceLog has an approximate 60% market share in TPV by number of clients. TPV is required or authorised by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in most states for telecom service changes, and by many states for changes in electric and natural gas service. In addition, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission requires a process similar to TPV for many orders and many clients use TPV to ensure reliable documentation of those orders. VoiceLog offers both automated and live third party verification utilising the latest technologies such as speech recognition and distributed live agents.
* In-Language Support: VoiceLog’s Any Language on Earth™ provides translation and verification services in any language a client requires. In addition to the current list of 24 different languages including Arabic, Hebrew, Hmong and Tagalog, VoiceLog will locate and train new agents to accommodate any special language requests.
* Electronic Letters of Authorisation (eLOA): VoiceLog’s NetTPV™ verifies telecom, Internet or other service orders with the security and credibility of third party verification and the legal standing of a fully qualified electronic signature.
* Reg E Xpress: Reg E Xpressâ„¢ is a phone-based electronic signature process specifically designed for one-off and recurring automated demand draft and debit authorisation. The VoiceLog system records necessary information which customers can retrieve via a toll-free number. A written copy is then sent to the customer for their records.
* E911 Notification: VoiceLog’s E911Alertâ„¢ notifies VoIP customers of E911 service, while gaining their affirmative acknowledgement of the notice. The U.S. FCC requires VoIP carriers who connect with the public telephone network to notify their customers of any limitations to their E911 service, including where and under what conditions it may not be available. Importantly, VoIP carriers must also obtain “affirmative acknowledgement” from every customer that they have received and understood that information.
About BSG Clearing Solutions
Billing Services Group Limited (BSG) is a leading global provider of clearing, settlement, payment and financial risk management solutions for communications service providers. Listed on the London Stock Exchange (AIM: BILL), the company has to date made two acquisitions – EDS Interoperator Services GmbH (August 2005) and United Clearing Plc (March 2006).
Through its operating business units, the Group processes over 20 billion transactions annually for 630 of the world’s largest communications companies throughout Europe, North America and Asia.
Recent developments include:
* renewal of agreement with Cincinnati Bell for GSM international roaming financial clearing and settlement services;
* availability of BSG’s Roaming Information Service in Europe and Asia; and
* corporate debt refinancing with a new $330 million multi-currency credit facility.
With a ubiquitous, scalable platform and an extensive portfolio of clearinghouse services for wireless, fixed-line, WLAN, content and next-generation networks, BSG monetises network transactions by facilitating financial settlements. Positioned at the centre of network commerce, BSG has the ability to process accurately and manage billions of financial transactions with the highest standards of security, reliability and trust, all in real time.
About VoiceLog
VoiceLog, LLC is the world’s leading provider of third party verification, with over 300 clients in the US, Canada and Europe. VoiceLog has developed unrivalled expertise in regulatory compliance, automated and live agent verification scripting, recording, storage, retrieval and reporting. With over 10 years of experience and over 100 million calls recorded, it is no wonder that more telecom companies choose VoiceLog than all other TPV providers combined. For more information about VoiceLog, call 240-631-8392 or visit VoiceLog on the web at www.voicelog.com.