Teleperformance drops 18% after 'second shock in less than 24 hours'

Majorel Luxembourg SA

26/04/2023 10:21

** Shares in France's Teleperformance  TEPRF.PA  fall as
much as 18% after the outsourcing and call centre group said on
Tuesday it will automate operations and on Wednesday announced
it plans to buy rival Majorel  MAJ.AS  
    ** Teleperformance plans to raise 2.05 billion euros ($2.26
billion) through a highly dilutive capital hike to fund the
acquisition 
    ** The news of the 3 billion euros merger deal comes as the
"second shock in less than 24 hours", RBC says
    ** "Less than 24 hours after the verbal announcement of
management's latest views on the profoundly disruptive impacts
of generative AI, which we believe should have been addressed at
a detailed CME, TEP has this morning announced a piece of large
scale consolidation which we think goes against the spirit of
the previously communicated M&A strategy," RBC adds
    ** Senior key executive Bhupender Singh had told analysts on
Tuesday "20% to 30% of our current volumes will get automated"
due to the development of artificial intelligence and more
specifically GPT language models over the next three years
    ** By 0914 GMT, the stock is down 13.8% and is the top loser
on Europe's blue-chips index  .STOXX 

($1 = 0.9057 euros)

 (Reporting by Alessandro Parodi)
 ((alessandro.parodi@thomsonreuters.com))