M&A News: BancTec takes over DocuData Solutions

BancTec, a global provider of advanced, high volume document and payment processing products and services, has acquired DocuData Solutions, an imaging, content management and media storage business process outsourcing (BPO) services provider with operations centres throughout Texas. The acquisition supports BancTec's strategy to expand its BPO business worldwide, adding 3 Texas processing centres to its 4 existing U.S. sites and 11 European sites.

"DocuData's long history of providing BPO services for an impressive set of clients, coupled with the reach and resources of BancTec, will enable us to expand our outsource offerings and provide a higher level of service to our clients," said J. Coley Clark, BancTec chairman and chief executive officer. "We look forward to leveraging our joint capabilities and previous success as business partners to grow our BPO businesses."

"This agreement enables DocuData to become part of a global, USD380 million company that has more than three decades of document processing experience. While our day-to-day work on behalf of clients will not change, the opportunities we can pursue and the solutions we can deliver will expand significantly," said Brian L. Rathe, president of DocuData Solutions. "I look forward to becoming part of the BancTec family and finding new ways to take advantage of our joint technology, solutions and BPO offerings."

DocuData's BPO services centre around digital imaging and vault storage for critical business media. The company currently operates three secure, state-of-the-art production facilities in Dallas, Houston, and Austin, Texas, where it converts and manages more than 250 million images annually. While DocuData provides customized solutions for many industries, it has built particular expertise in serving clients in healthcare, government, energy, mortgage and general commercial segments of the market.

DocuData has been a BancTec client for several years, and in June of 2007 the two firms partnered to increase the efficiency of DocuData's BPO platform by deploying BancTec's image capture and management platform, IntelliScan, in its processing centers. The partnership proved vital to the success of DocuData's recent client acquisitions and has fueled the company's growth and created a competitive advantage.

DocuData will operate as a division of BancTec and will continue to be known as DocuData Solutions. Brian Rathe will remain with DocuData, reporting to Michael D. Fallin, senior vice president and president, Americas and Emerging Markets.

Financial terms of the transaction were not announced.