Intrum announces latest company results

Debt purchaser has announced its latest company results. Main highlights include:

• Operating earnings, adjusted for non-recurring expenses and revaluations of portfolios of receivables improved to SEK 973 M. Compared to the first quarter (pro forma) of 2017 operating earnings increased by 10 percent.

• Portfolio investments for the quarter amounted to SEK 1,373 M. The carrying amount for portfolio investments has risen by 7 percent since the end of 2017.

• The sale of Intrum Justitia’s former subsidiaries in Norway and Lindorff’s former subsidiaries in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Estonia was completed on March 20, 2018.

Mikael Ericson, President and CEO of Intrum said “Intrum has had a stable start to 2018 with underlying growth in operating earnings of 10 percent in the first quarter. We are also seeing our portfolio investments continuing to develop well and we invested SEK 1.4 billion in new portfolios during the quarter. In Credit Management, sales increased by 3 percent, and although the operating margin has fallen slightly to 25 percent, our cost-cutting measures and increased efficiency have begun to yield results, and we anticipate progressively increasing margins for the remainder of 2018. Overall, I am very pleased with how we have begun 2018,”

“Integration efforts are continuing, and we are now working intensively to ensure that our operations are run efficiently and with a substantial focus on delivering value to clients and customers. To date, we have realized SEK 280 million of the cost synergies we anticipated in connection with the merger. This is in line with overall target of realizing SEK 580 million in cost synergies by 2020.”

“The transaction with Intesa Sanpaolo is a milestone for Intrum, whereby we clearly demonstrate how our market-leading position and many years of experience in credit management generate opportunities for transactions that will transform our entire industry. European banks have a great need to find partners able to support them in reducing their exposure to past-due and amortized loans in their balance sheets, and Intrum is one of the few players able to embark on partnerships of that kind.”