Shares in Salmat Limited soared after the marketing services company announced the sale for $53 million of its contact centre business to process outsourcing provider Probe Group in partnership with funds advised by private equity firm Five V Capital.

At the close, the shares were up 30% to $0.60.

The decision to sell the contact centre business followed analysis of the entire Salmat Group in a strategic review.

This review also led to the sale of Salmat’s MessageNet and Interactive businesses in the first half of 2018 for a return of $15.3 million.

“The sale is in line with our strategy to focus on innovating Salmat’s core capabilities for long-term sustainability,” says CEO Rebecca Lowde.

“Selling our contact centre business will free up capital and Group resources to invest in our Marketing Solutions and MicroSourcing businesses.”

Salmat is an Australian marketing services company founded in 1979 to distribute catalogues to people’s letterboxes.

The company posted a net profit after tax of $2.1 million for the six months to December on revenue​ of $196.3 million, down 4.1%.

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