Lowell posts £152m cash income for Q3

Lowell’s latest financial results show the company’s cash EBITDA also increased for the third quarter compared to 2016 – to £78m from £69m.

For the 12 months ending September 30, Lowell’s growth in 120-month estimated remaining collections hit £1.95bn, a year-on-year rise of 18 percent.

The results found Lowell’s portfolio acquisitions have increased by 14 percent to £271m for the 12 months to September 30 2017. The company also acquired a total of 337 portfolios from 70 clients across all major unsecured sectors in this period – of this 47 percent was repeat business.

Earlier this month, Lowell announced it had entered into an agreement with fellow European debt buyer Intrum Justitia to acquire a carve-out business operating across Scandinavia.

The agreement, secured long after a merger was first announced between Intrum and its competitor Lindorff, means that Lowell will acquire Lindorff’s entire business in Denmark, Estonia, Finland and Sweden as well as Intrum Justitia’s entire business in Norway.

The transaction, valued at €730m, will create one of the largest credit management service providers in Europe.

Lowell said the acquisition, expected to close in the first half of 2018, will rebalance its business mix between debt purchase and third-party collections.

James Cornell, chief executive of Lowell, said: “This has been a successful quarter for us. We have delivered growth against all our key measures and provided clear evidence that our strategy delivers for clients and customers alike.

“The combination of Lowell and the carve-out business from Intrum has a compelling rationale, not least the exciting opportunities for the further growth and diversification of our business.”