Reply enters the field of Business Process Outsourcing with the acquisition of a business branch of Fiat Gesco and by setting up Eos Reply

03 May 2005

Reply S.p.A. – a company listed on the TechSTAR division of the Italian stock exchange [REY.MI] – concluded the agreement with the Fiat Group for the acquisition of a business branch dedicated to the management of "third party" clients of Fiat Gesco, a company specialisied in Process Management solutions.

Specifically, Reply is taking over long-term contracts, with an annual value of over € 5 million, relating to the administrative and financial processes of various industrial groups including: Avio S.p.A., ILTE Industria Libraria Tipografica Editrice S.p.A., Teksid Aluminum S.r.l, RGZ MM After Market S.p.A., and GTT Gas Turbine Technologies S.p.A.

With this operation, Reply is laying solid foundations in a field which was worth € 1.3 billion in Italy in 2004. According to the Gartner Group, it will involve over 40% of highly computerised corporate processes, with selective BPO models, by the year 2010.

The resources and expertise acquired from Fiat Gesco will form part of Eos Reply, a new company set up by Reply and dedicated to Process Management. Contributing their skills to this company will be professionals from Studio Pirola, Pennuto, Zei & Associati, one of the leading Italian offices in the field of providing legal and tax assistance and consultancy to companies.

"With the acquisition of the Fiat Gesco branch – stated Mario Rizzante, Reply’s Chairman - and the foundation of Eos Reply, we have added an important new element to our offer to enterprises, already including Consultancy, System Integration, Application Management, and now also Process Management. This offer can now be defined as comprehensive and integrated in terms of services and solutions we provide".

"For us, Business Process Outsourcing – continued Reply’s Chairman – is a new challenge that we intend to face with our usual targets of quality and excellence, that always featured Reply’s offer. For us, creating satisfied users means bringing innovation and real improvements to the business processes that we manage for our clients".