HBS

Hyder Business Services (HBS) was a business process outsourcing (BPO) and information technology company, acquired by Terra Firma in 2000.

HBS was a high quality business which was not achieving its potential as a small, non-core division of a large utility parent. HBS’s main customer base was local government, which was under pressure to save costs and shed non-core activities. It was well-positioned to establish itself as the market leader in the BPO sector, but it required help winning new business in order to attain critical mass.

Long-term, committed contracts gave stability and a reliable source of cash flow, and HBS focused on its core local government market by shedding non-core contracts. New business development was concentrated on its core local government market, which was under pressure to save costs.

The business underwent a major re-engineering programme, helping to realise substantial cost reductions within its existing contracts. In addition to cost reduction, the change programme helped deliver numerous examples of improved process efficiency which resulted in new business from existing local authorities seeking to reap similar efficiency improvements.

HBS successfully signed major, long-term local authority contracts which offered the potential to lower the business’s cost of capital.

The HBS investment has been fully realised. In 2007, HBS was sold to a trade buyer.