HIG completes $200m exit to Ares-backed SPAC

HIG Capital has sold tech support company Stream Holdings for $200 million (€128 million) in cash to Global BPO Services, a blank cheque company backed by private equity and debt investment firm Ares Management.

Los Angeles-based Ares floated Global BPO in October of last year, raising more than $250 million.

HIG and Global BPO agreed the deal in January, valuing Stream at $225.8 million. With the consummation of the deal, Stream has completed debt financing for a $108 million credit facility.

American Stock Exchange-listed Global BPO will rename itself Stream Global Services and, following the issuance of $150 million in convertible preferred stock, will commence a tender offering for roughly 20 million shares of its common stock at a price of $8 per share.

HIG managing director Rick Rosen has joined Stream Global Service’s board of directors. Scott Murray, Global BPO chairman and chief executive, will remain at both posts of the reconstituted company. Murray once served as president of Stream.  

Mid-market specialist HIG built Stream from a $75 million spin-out of the call center division of IT company Software Spectrum. That unit, temporarily called ECE Holdings, purchased Stream from Oregon-based security software firm Solectron in 2004. HIG rebranded the combined unit as Stream Holdings.

Texas-based Stream specialises in outsourced customer relationship management. The company currently employees 15,000 people across 30 call centers in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

A difficult IPO market has prompted many private equity firms to seek special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACS, as an indirect route to a public float. Last month, a SPAC led by former Apollo Management Group advisor Marc Byron acquired an Apollo-owned dashboard navigator system maker for $700 million.