Employee benefits consultancy for medium and large corporations Bluefin Corporate Consulting has been acquired by outsourcing firm Capita from insurers AXA for £50m cash.

Bluefin’s services are used by over 150 clients with a combined total of over 80,000 employees, and made £5.3m operating profit in 2011 on turnover of £51m.

Paul Pindar, chief executive of Capita, says that the firm “provides an excellent strategic fit with our existing corporate pensions business, Capita Hartshead”.

Bluefin chief executive Nick Burns becomes chief executive of this new combined business, and comments: “With the full backing of a FTSE 100 company, this new business will be able to provide genuinely innovative solutions to the rapidly evolving and increasingly dynamic employee benefits market.”

Bluefin employs 548 people, principally in London and across eight further offices throughout the UK.