Collection Giant Forms Debt Purchasing Joint Venture with Goldman Sachs

Intrum Justitia, Europe?s leading receivables management group, listed on the Stockholm Exchange (Stockholmsbörsen), has reached an agreement with global investment bank Goldman Sachs to establish a joint venture to purchase portfolios of written-off debt.

The joint venture will seek to invest in several European countries, excluding the Nordic region. Collection services will be provided by the local Intrum Justitia subsidiary in the debt?s country of origin.

?While our core competence is collection, purchasing written-off consumer receivables is an essential complement to our service offering?, commented Jan Roxendal, CEO of Intrum Justitia, ?in particular since this is a service that many of our big customers would like to exploit as an alternative to traditional collection. It is also an important source of new collection cases, which is a way of increasing our profitability.?

?The joint venture with a renowned investment bank like Goldman Sachs is a significant step in our strategic effort to extend into large portfolios of delinquent debt multiplying Intrum Justitia?s current capacity for investing in debt portfolios?, Mr Roxendal continued. ?We will combine our geographical presence and collection capacity with Goldman Sachs financial resources, which allows us to participate more actively in the tender process for larger portfolios.?

?Besides sourcing for new investment opportunities, partners like Goldman Sachs and Crédit Agricole Indosuez bring knowledge and experience, added Kari Kyllönen, who heads Intrum Justitia?s Purchased Debt service line. ?Intrum Justitia will continue to buy small and medium sized portfolios of written-off debt, but joint ventures give us the capacity to take part in the continuing trend for banks and other credit institutions to divest large portfolios of debt to specialized service providers.?

?We are very excited about our new joint venture with Intrum Justitia and look forward to working with them across a range of European markets?, said Peter Cirenza, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs?.

Intrum Justitia gross invested SEK 266 M ($34.6 million) in delinquent debt portfolios in 2002 and as of 30 June of this year the purchases amounted to SEK 47 M ($6.1 million). In June 2002 a similar joint venture was established with Crédit Agricole Indosuez, which is active in the Nordic markets.