American private equity firm Hammond, Kennedy, Whitney & Company (HKW) announced on December 3, 2019 the conclusion of a recapitalization agreement with Montréal-based language service provider (LSP) Traductions Serge Bélair (TRSB).
TRSB declined to share financial terms but confirmed that current shareholders include original family owners and the management team as well as HKW.
According to the Slator 2019 Language Service Provider Index (LSPI), TRSB’s 2018 revenues were approximately USD 17.6m, a 20% increase from 2017.
The HKW investment coincides with the official appointment of Vice President of Business Development Mary Kazamias to the position of CEO after 14 years with TRSB. Serge Bélair, the seasoned translator who founded TRSB in 1987, will retain a strategic role in the company.
Kazamias told Slator that the company has over 200 full-time employees and operates in a number of different industries, including finance, health sciences, engineering, and government, mostly within the Canadian market.
In 2013, the LSP launched TRSB Academy, which provides TRSB’s translators with continuing education materials, such as lectures, training tools, and one-on-one mentoring.
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TRSB uses various translation productivity (CAT) tools and its own proprietary management software and, Kazamias said, “TRSB is assessing the value of neural machine translation.”
She said TRSB had been looking for a partner to invest in the company’s long-term success, and HKW turned out to be the right fit.
“With this new partnership, TRSB is now an active player in the buying M&A scene,” Kazamias said.
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