Aleph Capital and the J. Safra Group have entered into a strategic partnership

Aleph Capital and the J. Safra Group have entered into a strategic partnership to create a leading pan-European non-performing loan platform and debt collection agency

“With the acquisition of the Multigestion, we are acquiring a solid platform in Spain and Portugal and will be well positioned in the financial services segment, focusing both on third party collections and portfolio acquisitions”. – Endre Rangnes, CEO.

Aleph Capital Partners LLP (“Aleph”) and the J. Safra Group are pleased to announce that they have entered into a strategic partnership to create a leading pan-European non-performing loan platform and debt collection agency. The platform will focus on servicing and purchasing unsecured non-performing loan (“NPL”) portfolios through partnerships with financial institutions throughout Europe. The platform will be led by CEO Endre Rangnes and a new management team gathered under his leadership. Jon Harald Nordbrekken will become the Chairman of the new platform.

As part of this strategic partnership, Aleph and the J. Safra Group are pleased to announce the signing of definitive documentation to purchase Multigestion Iberia S.L.U. (“Multigestion”). In March 2021, a fund backed by Aleph had announced the agreement to acquire Finans2 in Norway. Multigestion and Finans2, pending receipt of regulatory approval in Norway, will be both integrated into the new pan-European platform by the management team led by CEO Endre Rangnes. The acquisition of Multigestion marks the next key milestone in the development of the platform as it establishes itself as a significant pan-European NPL purchaser and servicer.

Multigestion is a well-established player in the Iberian NPL markets, having operated in Spain and Portugal for close to 30 years. Multigestion has scale, bringing with it circa 250 employees and EUR 5.7 billion of NPLs under management as a third-party collection provider, and mainly serves the financial services sector. Finally, Multigestion has developed a highly scalable collection platform and has invested significantly in new collection processes over the past 3 years.

In addition to Multigestion, the new platform has also made its first acquisition of a Spanish unsecured NPL portfolio. The portfolio has an outstanding principal of EUR 3.16 billion and consists of 650 000 claims. The portfolio will be managed by Multigestion.

According to the European Central Bank, the size of the European NPL market is expected to increase to ~EUR 1.4 trillion by end 2022.  The platform’s new management team has proactively targeted Iberia as one of the first jurisdictions to expand into along with the Nordics. The ambition is to become the partner of choice to local financial institutions for the management of their unsecured NPL portfolios, whether through NPL sales or long-term scalable and flexible servicing agreements. Following the Multigestion acquisition, the new platform will be well positioned to do exactly this in Iberia.

Endre Rangnes, Group CEO of the new platform said: “With the acquisition of the Multigestion, we are acquiring a solid platform in Spain and Portugal and will be well positioned in the financial services segment, focusing both on third party collections and portfolio acquisitions. We are excited to get more than 250 new colleagues and a very experienced management team on board. This acquisition is the first step in our Pan-European growth plan with focus on the financial services sector.”

Jacques Llorens, CEO Multigestion said: “Multigestion is a great match for the new platform. Combining our knowledge and experience from the Spanish and Portuguese credit management industry with the group’s knowledge and financial resources will enable us to deliver a competitive debt collection offering and grow our operations to the next level.”

Closing of the Multigestion and Spanish NPL transactions are not subject to any regulatory approval and are expected to occur by the end of July 2021. The acquisition of Finans2 remains subject to on-going regulatory approval by the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway (Nw. Finanstilsynet). Once the approval is obtained the businesses will be combined into the new group structure.