Colombia is becoming a very interesting country for investors. With the Vive Digital plan, the government is looking to boost Internet penetration in Colombia to decrease poverty, generate jobs and improve and increase competitiveness and productivity. As a result, the country is proving attractive for companies looking to invest. IT solutions and managed services provider PromonLogicalis, headquartered in Brazil and part of the U.K.-based Logicalis group, is the most recent example. The company announced today that it has bought the Colombian and Ecuadorian operations of Cibercall to expand its operations in these countries. PromonLogicalis did not release the total amount of the deal.
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Logicalis has partnerships with Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, CA Technologies and VMware, among others. Through the Cibercall purchase, it hopes to boost its growth across the Andean region.
“This is an emerging market, and we aim to provide solutions companies need,” Diego Martinez, COO of Logicalis Andina, recently told RCR Wireless News. Logicalis Andina covers the company’s operations in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador.
Cibercall’s solutions portfolio includes implementation, support, training, help-desk and managed services. Cibercall has about 50 employees and reported unaudited revenues in excess of $12 million in the financial year that ended on Dec. 31, 2011. This acquisition further builds Logicalis’ presence in Latin America, combining Cibercall’s local market knowledge and strong customer relationships, with Logicalis’ existing ICT solutions portfolio, technical expertise and sound financial position.
Martinez, who was hired as head of Logicalis Andina in September, is moving back to his native country of Colombia after having lived 17 years in United States where he had worked for AT&T, Lucent Technologies and UTStarcom. During the interview, he showed enthusiasm for being returning to a country that is in a much better situation than when he left.
“Both Colombia and Peru are doing great; they are Latin American tigers,” he said. “Colombia is being modernized. There is still a digital gap, but the government’s efforts have worked.”
At a São Paulo press conference in June, Logicalis stated that its Brazilian operations have grown 52% in the 2012 fiscal year, compared to 2011, reaching net revenues of $317 million. Brazil accounts for 71% of Logicalis’ total Latin American revenue of $447 million. Its Latin American operations represent 36% of its global revenues.
However, the company expects a slower growth rate of about 20% in the region for the 2013 fiscal year. Among the reasons for this huge reduction, Rodrigo Parreira, Logicalis Latin America’s CEO, pointed to the economic uncertainties in Latin America, especially in Brazil whose GDP is not reaching estimated goals. In addition, Argentina is going through a difficult political and economic time, which could negatively impact the company.
