After rumors that have been circulating on the market for a few weeks, the servicer and debt buyer Intrum, listed on the Stockholm stock exchange, has confirmed the agreement to sell the most significant part of its unsecured credit portfolios to the Cerberus fund.
The transaction concerns a nominal value of 382 billion SEK (Swedish crowns), (33 billion euros) and a book value of 11.5 billion SEK (Swedish crowns), shares at approximately 1 billion euros.
The structure of the operation envisages that the various portfolios currently owned by 13 of Intrum’s 20 European branches will be sold to an entity 65% owned by Cerberus and 35% by Intrum.
Intrum like this will receive at closing, expected within the first half of 2024, the cash payment of 711 million euros.
Intrum’s net debt of SEK 58.9 billion will thus fall to SEK 50.7 billion.
The transaction, in addition to significantly improving Intrum’s liquidity, allows it to meet the debt maturities of 2024 and 2025 without having to resort to the debt market
For the CEO and President of Intrum Andrés Rubio, this operation is an important step that will allow to reduce the group’s financial leverage while maintaining servicing on the entire portfolio. But it is also a further step towards a lighter business model in terms of capital and a further step towards establishing itself as a full service management platform.
Satisfaction with the acquisition of this pan-European portfolio by David Teitelbaum, European head of Cerberus European Capital Advisors, for whom the operation is part of the strategy of creating partnerships with leading companies in the sector around the world.
Managing Director of Credit Village, Roberto Sergio has more than 20 years of experience in NPL and distressed debt in the Italian and International market. He is the editor of the NPL column in Credit Village Magazine and the director of Credit Village's National NPL Market Observatory.