Advent International acquires majority stake in financial service
provider GFKL Financial Services A
(Thomson Reuters ONE) - Frankfurt/Essen - 12 October 2009 - Advent International, the globalprivate equity firm, has signed agreements to acquire a majoritystake in GFKL Financial Services AG, a leading independent financialservice provider for debt collection and debt purchase in Germanyfrom a consortium of institutional investors. In addition, Adventwill participate in a capital increase to strengthen GFKL's equitybase and to realise further growth. The purchase price was notdisclosed. The acquisition is subject to closing conditions includingmerger and regulatory approvals.Servicing receivables in excess of about ?23 billion, GFKL is aleading debt collection services provider in Germany. Since 2008, thecompany, which is headquartered in Essen, has undergone acomprehensive strategic refocusing following the decision todiscontinue its leasing and systems business. The focus now is ondebt collection and debt purchasing as well as software applications.GFKL's debt collection services include both trust administration andthe purchase of non-performing receivables. Classes of receivablesrange from secured real estate receivables to unsecured receivablesfrom consumers' credits as well as from other sectors such asinsurance, mail order and telecommunications. GFKL's software segmentcovers applications for the credit and receivables management ofbanks, savings banks, industries and the public sector; moreover, itincludes tailored and standardised applications for the core businessof insurance companies.The debt collection market has strong growth expectations driven byincreasing outsourcing levels in many of these sectors. With 700small to medium-sized debt collection companies and the top threeplayers representing only a 30% market share, the particularly highlyfragmented German market offers attractive consolidationopportunities.Dr. Peter Jaensch, Chief Executive Officer of GFKL Financial ServicesAG, said: "Over the last twelve months we have adapted the businessmodel of GFKL to deal with the impact of the financial crisis. WithAdvent we have found a new shareholder who intends to enhance GFKL'srepositioning by providing deep sector expertise as well as financialresources."Ralf Huep, Managing Partner in Advent International's Frankfurtoffice and Co-Head for Europe, said: "We will continue to supportGFKL by providing the required capital, as well as the additionalsector know how to grow. These two key factors will significantlycontribute to strengthening GFKL's future performance and toreposition the company going forward."Dr. Christian Stoffel, Head of Advent International's FinancialServices practice in Germany, who led the investment for Advent,adds: "We believe the company's leading position provides a strongplatform for growth and will allow accelerating the expansion of thebusiness through expanding organically as well as throughacquisitions."Juergen Baltes, member of the executive board of GFKL and responsiblefor the Debt-Collection Non-banking and Software, said: "Theacquisition by Advent is indeed an important step to position GFKL ina market set for growth." Dr. Tom Haverkamp, member of the executiveboard and responsible for debt collection banking and debtpurchasing, agrees: "We see Advent as the ideal partner, who iscommitted to grow the company."Advent International is one of the leading global investors infinancial services having completed investments in 16 financialservices companies in the last four years with a combined enterprisevalue of more than $7.5 billion. This year, Advent has signed twofinancial services investments, Fifth Third Processing Solutions, theUS payments processing business and CETIP, the largest centraldepository for private fixed-income securities and over-the-counter(OTC) derivatives in Latin America. Further investments includePoland's leading debt purchase and collection business ULTIMO, Monextand Sophis in France, Quero Quero in Brazil and Domestic and Generaland Equiniti in the UK.MEDIA CONTACT for Advent International:Financial DynamicsCarolin Amann: +49 69 92037 132Louisa Feltes: +44 (0) 207 269 7108GFKL Financial Services AG:Katrin Schwarz: +49 (0)201 102-1192http://hugin.info/138094/R/1346882/323669.pdfThis announcement was originally distributed by Hugin. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Datum: 12.10.2009 - 11:20 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 6799
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