Lindorff Acquires Aktiv Kapital Collections Operations in Spain

Lindorff Group has kickstarted its greenfield operations in Spain as of March 3rd, 2009 where a former Aktiv Kapital collections centre in Barcelona with 38 employees has been transferred to Lindorff. "Through this arrangement, we are able to launch our operations in Spain one quarter earlier than originally planned" said Mr. David Hall, Lindorff’s Head of region Continental Europe.

Lindorff has a clear international growth strategy based on its Nordic heritage and broad experience in handling non-performing loans from financial institutions. The company has earlier signalled that it will commence its operations in Spain during Q2/2009.

Aktiv Kapital’s global strategy is to strengthen its position for future profitable growth as a debt acquirer and debt manager.

"The divestment of Aktiv Kapital’s operation in Barcelona confirms the strategy of complementing our in-house collection with outsourcing partners. This will ensure the company’s competitive position in Spain and create a good benchmarking base for our internal activity", said Erik Øyno, CEO & President Aktiv Kapital Group. The agreement with Lindorff is a part of the announced cost reduction program and represents a yearly fixed cost saving of 2 MEUR ($2.5 million).

In total Aktiv Kapital owns 1.3 million consumer claims in Spain of which 425,000 are outsourced to renowned third party collection agencies.

The collections centre in Barcelona has experience in handling claims from a number of industries. Most important is the particular experience with claims from banks and other financial institutions.

"With this collections centre in place we can immediately start servicing Spanish financial institutions struggling with non-performing loans. Volumes are increasing rapidly due to the financial crisis, and we are delighted to be able to accelerate our support to our key banking clients", said Mr. Lucas Pico, country manager for Lindorff Spain.

The collections centre in Barcelona will be first of two Lindorff centres serving Spanish customers. Lindorff is currently also setting up a collection centre in Madrid.

Aktiv Kapital will maintain the presence in Madrid with more than 100 employees.

About Aktiv Kapital
Headquartered in Oslo, Norway. Aktiv Kapital has operations in 11 countries, and is today Europe’s and Canada’s largest purchaser of non-performing consumer credits. Within the Portfolio segment Aktiv Kapital had approx 550,000 paying customers in 2007. Aktiv Kapital is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (AIK). For more information about Aktiv Kapital, please visit www.aktivkapital.com

About Lindorff
Lindorff Group is the leading outsourced receivables management company in the Nordic region, and one of the leading on a global basis. Lindorff has approximately 2000 employees in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Finland. Lindorff has significant experience with industries such as bank, finance, insurance, telecom, utilities and credit trade. For more information about Lindorff, please visit www.lindorff.com