Turkey's call centers attract foreign investors

The call center sector in Turkey, which turns over around $1.6 billion a year, continues to attract foreign investors. After Koç Holding's subsidiary Callus was acquired by Italy- and Istanbul-based Metis, another giant European company wanted to invest in the Turkish call center sector. Paris-based Webhelp SAS, which is one of the largest call center companies in the world, became the main shareholder of Callpex, which is one of the most significant companies in the Turkish sector. Webhelp is set to acquire 79 percent of Callpex. When the agreement is completed, the French company will add Turkey to the 12 countries it operates in including Belgium, Morocco, India and Madagascar. Having been established in 2008, Callpex is known as one of the companies providing the most employment in the market with 2,000 employees.

Besides Istanbul, Callpex has call centers in Bingöl and Yozgat. Callpex partners include Esas Holding Chairman Ali Sabancı; founder of Probil, Turgut Gürsoy; a partner of, Ytong Haluk Emiroğlu; a well-known businessman in the information sector, Kemal Cılız; and a Lebanese investor, Reda Gargour. The company provides a service for famous companies such as Pegasus, Vestel, Borusan, Teknosa and Lenovo. French Webhelp, which was established in 2000, is drawing attention with its investments in the telemarketing sector as well as the call center sector. London-based investment fund Chartarhouse Capital Partners became a partner with Webhelp, which has more than 22,000 employees.

There are nearly 300 companies operating in the Turkish call center sector, which employs 80,000 people. Many international companies - chiefly European companies - have entered the market by establishing partnerships in the last two years. Mitsui, which is one of the largest group companies in Japan, partnered with Tempo, which has call centers in four cities and employs 1,500 people in Turkey. French Teleperformance, which employs 135,000 people in 367 call centers, acquired 7 percent of Metis in 2012. Metis has three call centers in Istanbul and Uşak and provides employment for 900 people. The largest acquisition in the sector came from Italian Comdata. Comdata acquired Koç Holding's call center Callus at 100 percent in 2013. The company, which was established as "Koç Sistem Çağrı Merkezi Dış Kaynak Hizmeti" in 2003, was named "Callus Bilgi ve İletişim" in 2009. Now the most important company in the sector, the company has nearly 2,000 employees.