Intrum - comment

In our recent discussions with some of you we had voiced our increasing confidence that Intrum could get this transaction underway. Nonetheless, we were a little surprised to read about it as early as yesterday evening. The headline of 98% of BV seems to be slightly misleading if we take into account the full 8% hit Intrum are taking. A price of 92% is still slightly better than the 89% at which we are valuing the portfolio, but that could be a function of the exact type of assets underlying this portfolio - or we are perhaps 3% too pessimistic? We think that despite Intrum retaining a 35% stake and therefore receiving cash of only €711m, the transaction is big enough to materially de-risk the 2025 maturities. So it should steepen the curve as per discussions in the last weeks. 

We think this transaction is relevant beyond Intrum and beyond debt collectors. While this is consumer unsecured, we think the same cash will soon be available to buy real estate portfolios as well.