KRUK sells ERIF BIG S.A. to CRIF

On 3rd of January 2023, KRUK announced that it has entered into an agreement with CRIF Group entities for the sale of 100% of shares in ERIF BIG S.A. and 100% of shares in EBS Sp. z o.o. The transfer of title will take place after fulfilling formal obligations, not later than in February 2023.

“Today's transaction has its roots at the transformation we have undergone at the KRUK Group in recent years. As a result of the process, KRUK’s Management Board has placed even greater focus on the core business line of debt portfolio management, particularly in international markets. Let me remind you that for the debt portfolio management business in Poland we have created a separate managing director position. Although Poland remains the key market for us, we are increasingly expanding our operations beyond its borders, as evidenced by our recent investments and recoveries we have recorded. Our goal is to continue the international growth and technological change we are experiencing,” comments Piotr Krupa, CEO of KRUK S.A. “The credit reference business has been part of our Group since 2007, providing us with support in the debt recovery process. We intend to continue cooperation in this area, but from now on under separate ownership structures. ERIF today is an organisation with more than 40 staff that successfully provides credit reference services on the open market, cooperating with banks and telecommunications companies, among others. There are a total of 155 million entries in the ERIF database, and only in the first three quarters of 2022 ERIF generated 9.7 million reports for its clients. ERIF’s consolidated revenue for the period was PLN 6.8 million, with EBITDA at PLN 0.6 million.  At the same time, on a Group-wide basis, after the first three quarters of 2022 revenue generated by this business line accounted for less than 1% of KRUK’s total revenue. We have considered possible scenarios and believe that the new ownership structure can create more natural synergies for ERIF and provide more opportunities to leverage the company's potential, especially since the CRIF Group specialises in credit reference services. After the transaction will be finalised, officially we will end our 15-year collaboration within the Group. I consider this time to be important for both KRUK and ERIF and would like say a big thank you to the ERIF team for our joint adventure, wishing them further successful growth,” Piotr Krupa concluded.