Marlin Equity readies Collenda for auction

Patrick Costello , Johannes Koch and Amy-Jo Crowley
03 November 2021

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Collenda, a German financial software company, is being prepped for sale by sponsor Marlin Equity Partners, according to four sources familiar with the situation.

Raymond James is advising on the potential exit, the sources said, with one adding that a process could kick off before the end of the year as the sell-side has received inbound interest in the asset.

Collenda generates around EUR 10m in EBITDA, three of the sources said, while the other suggested that EBITDA could stretch as far as EUR 15m with forward-looking adjustments. Revenue growth is around 5-10% annually, according to the second source.

The company's business is concentrated in the German market and is not particularly high growth, one of the sources said. As Collenda sells primarily to banks, its business model faces difficulties as its customer base is shrinking due to bank mergers, the fourth source added.

Still, one of the sources countered that bank mergers have no impact on usage of Collenda's services, adding that the company sees low churn and high retention rates among users and has further potential for upselling at banks. It plans to double EBITDA over the next two to three years with a mix of acquisitions and sales of its new white-label product, which is both AI-driven and suitable to other customer segments, the same source added.

The company has already made acquisitions outside of Germany, expanding its client base beyond banking into the utilities and telecoms sectors, the source noted.

In September 2020, Marlin acquired S4Dunning, a Netherlands-based supplier of credit and receivables management software firm, to merge with Collenda and accelerate its expansion into the corporate market, as reported.

Marlin acquired Collenda, then known as ABIT Europe, from German sponsor Findos Investor in 2017 for an undisclosed sum and rebranded it in 2018.

Based in Meerbusch in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Collenda provides credit management and debt collection software to more than 800 banks, corporations and collection agencies across Europe, according to its website. It was initially founded in 1986.

Marlin declined to comment. Raymond James and Collenda did not respond to requests for comment.