Intrum - comment

Escape forward. Intrum and Cerberus are emerging victorious in the battle for Zolva’s €6bn of Spanish and another €bn of Norwegian assets. Cerberus and to a small extent Intrum, are looking to capitalise a vehicle to buy the €7bn book, providing Intrum with the Servicing contract. This looks like a major win for Intrum, although we imagine the company is to take on Zolva’s employees first. We are mildly astonished at the headlines and must admit that we did not think Intrum/Cerberus were seriously bidding for these assets at this tricky time. Regardless of short-term wobbles in labour cost, mergers (if we can call it that) of this kind are the way to go when times get tough and the additional business the deal will generate should drive much-needed fantasy in Intrum’s servicing business.