Ultimo (Poland) - Oct 2007

Syntaxis has provided €12.5m of mezzanine investment to Ultimo, a Polish consumer debt purchase and recovery business and a portfolio company of Advent International. The financing is the first investment out of Syntaxis’ debut fund, which held its first close in late July (September 2007, page 9). The working relationship between the Syntaxis team goes back to even before the establishment of the firm, when Advent acquired Bulgarian Telecommunications Company in 2004.

Company

Ultimo was founded in 2002 and has nearly €1bn of receivables under management. The company purchases consumer loans from banks, utilities and telecoms companies, funded by committed senior and mezzanine financing from BPH, part of the HVB/Unicredit group, and Syntaxis. Advent International acquired Ultimo from the company’s founders and funds managed by AIG Capital Partners in October 2006. The company employs over 400 employees and had a turnover of €12m in 2006. The Polish debt purchase and recovery business is still in the early stages of its development, and has a high potential for growth, as Polish consumers have much less debt than their Western counterparts.

People

Przemek Szczepanski worked on the transaction on behalf of Syntaxis. Anna Gaweska is the CEO of Ultimo.

Advisers

Equity - Clifford Chance LLP, (Legal)Equity - McFarlanes, (Legal)Equity - Wiercinski, Kwiecinski, Baehr Sp.k., (Legal)

Sourced from: Deutsche unquote" 94 (Jan 2008)

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• Topics
• CEE
• Expansion
• Financials
• Poland