Nordic Capital's Lindorff merges with Intrum Justitia

Intrum Justitia will wholly acquire all outstanding shares in Lindorff in exchange for newly issued shares in the combined group.

The deal will give Nordic Capital, which is invested in Lindorff via its eighth fund, a 45.5% stake in the consolidated business, making it the largest independent shareholder.

Based on Intrum Justitia’s share price as of 11 November, the transaction gives Lindorff an equity valuation of SEK 17.9bn (around €1.8bn) and an enterprise value of SEK 40.5bn (around €4.1bn). The combined business will remain as a listed entity following the deal, with a market cap in the region of SEK 38bn (around €3.9bn).

The deal comes shortly after Intrum Justitia agreed to acquire UK debt collection business 1st Credit from Bridgepoint in a £130m deal.

The Lindorff deal, which is expected to receive regulatory approval by Q2 2017, is estimated to provide the consolidated group with SEK 800m (around €80m) in efficiency savings.

Under Nordic Capital’s tenure, Lindorff has grown through an acquisitive pan-European strategy. Most recently, it acquired a 94% stake in Spanish non-performing loans servicing company Aktua in May 2016.

Previous funding
Altor acquired Lindorff from Norwegian insurance company Gjensidige in a €163m deal in 2004. Four years later, Swedish investment company Investor acquired 50% of the company for €360m, with Altor retaining the remaining 50% stake.

Altor and Investor then sold their majority stake in the business to Nordic Capital for an enterprise value of €2.3bn in July 2014. Both previous owners retained minority holdings in the company following the deal.

Company
Founded in 1898 and headquartered in Oslo, Lindorff is a debt collection business. The company generates a net turnover of SEK 6.4bn and has EBITDA of SEK 2.9bn. It has a headcount of 4,400 and has operations across 13 countries.

Intrum Justitia was founded in 1923 and is headquartered in Stockholm. It has 4,000 employees and operations in 20 markets. The business generates net revenues of SEK 5.8bn with EBITDA of SEK 2bn.

The newly merged business will have revenues of SEK 12.2bn (around €1.3bn) with EBITDA of SEK 4.9bn (around €500m). It will have operations in 23 European countries and a headcount of around 8,000.

People
NC Advisory – Kristoffer Melinder (managing partner).
Intrum Justitia – Mikael Ericson (president, CEO); Lars Lundquist (chairperson).
Lindorff – Klaus-Anders Nysteen (president, CEO); Per E Larsson (chairperson).

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