Enterprise Comms Provider BSL Snapped up by Private Equity

Business Systems Limited (BSL) has been acquired by August Equity to kick off a buy-and-build strategy.

BSL specialises in enterprise communication platforms, with a particular focus on the financial sector.

The deal is the latest in a string from private equity firm August which have taken it into the comms and IT channel.

Adam Kantor, who moves up from CCO to CEO as part of the acquisition, said:

“This is an exciting opportunity for BSL, our employees and our customers”

“Our legacy of providing compliance and monitoring solutions to the world’s largest financial institutions has been the foundation from which we have built our Workforce Engagement Management and Cloud Contact Centre offerings, and this investment opportunity allows us to serve our customers even better with innovative and disruptive technologies as well as providing access to additional expert resources.

“By working with August Equity, we can help our customers transform the way they work from the inside out, both through market leading vendor solutions as well as our own innovative IP, Wordwatch, a unique platform that solves a multitude of voice recording and compliance challenges.”

Founded in 1987, BSL refers to itself as the UK’s largest independent call recording specialist on its website. It claims its clients  include The Bank of England and Standard Life.

Tech Partners, meanwhile, include Cloud9 and Red Box.

BSL reported sales of just under £12m in FY19.

The investment will see it “significantly accelerate” both organic and acquisitive growth, August Equity said.

The acquisition is August’s fourth in the IT space and follows moves for SecureData – which it has since sold to Orange – Charterhouse and Air IT.

Mehul Patel, Partner at August Equity, said: “We are delighted to back the team in growing BSL to become a leading player in its market space.

“This platform has an opportunity to expand its customer base globally whilst investing more on higher growth segments such as contact centre as a service and its internally developed voice compliance software management tool called Wordwatch.

“August has developed a successful playbook to develop managed services businesses through acquisition and organic strategies and create an outstanding business over the period of our ownership.”