KRUK S.A. is a leader of the debt management market. Over nearly two decades, we have grown from a small firm employing less than 20 staff into a global financial group, specialising broadly in debt management. Currently, the KRUK Group comprises a number of companies offering a comprehensive range of modern integrated services, which we are ready to tailor to the needs and expectations of our partners in order to recover payments owed to them.
On a mass scale, KRUK pursues a strategy focused on amicable settlements with its clients, i.e. debtors, spreading repayment of their debt over manageable instalments. Supported through media campaigns, the strategy aims to convince debtors to start talking with KRUK about repayment terms.
The Group’s core business is the management of debt purchased for the Group’s own account or outsourced for collection by other institutions. The Group manages debt in three segments:
- consumer debt (unsecured),
- mortgage-backed debt,
- corporate debt.
The KRUK Group manages receivables of banks, loan brokers, insurers, leasing companies, landline and mobile telecommunications operators, cable TV operators, digital TV operators, and companies from the FMCG sector, but it focuses on the banking market, where it relies on long-term relations with its key accounts.
The Group’s presence in both the purchased debt and outsourced credit management segments provides it with an important competitive advantage based on operational synergies, and helps mitigate the risk related to debt portfolio purchases thanks to additional statistics from the credit management business.
The debt management business is supported by the Group’s law firm Kancelaria Prawna RAVEN and by ERIF BIG S.A., a credit reference bureau. The Group is also developing the Novum loan service, offered to clients who previously repaid their debts towards the Group.
In 2007, the Group launched its operations on the Romanian market, and in 2011 − on the Czech and Slovak markets. KRUK Deutschland was established in 2014 and a year later KRUK bought its first debt portfolios in Germany. Also in 2015, two more companies were established − in Italy and Spain. KRUK acquired its first debt portfolio on the Italian market still in 2015, and on the Spanish market − early in 2016.
At the end of 2015, all the KRUK Group companies employed over 2.7 thousand staff, which means the Group’s headcount more than trebled relative to 2007. On May 10th 2011, KRUK S.A. shares were floated at the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Since the IPO, KRUK’s market capitalisation grew by 360 percent.
KRUK Group’s key strategic objectives
The key strategic objective of the KRUK Group for 2015−2019 is to rank among Europe’s top three debt management companies in terms of net profit.
The Group plans to achieve this objective through:
- product range development and geographical expansion,
- improvement of efficiency,
- improvement of research and analyses.
Product range development and geographical expansion
In 2015−2019, the Group plans to expand its existing business lines and develop new ones both in the countries where it has already established a presence and on new foreign markets. With respect to the product range, the Group plans to purchase more consumer, mortgage-backed and corporate debt portfolios, and develop its debt management services, consumer loans and credit information business. The Group intends to expand into large European markets of consumer debt management.
Improvement of efficiency
Steps taken to enhance the Group’s efficiency cover the entire organisation, with a particular focus on economies of scale and management of the purchased debt portfolio. Based on nominal value at the time of acquisition, the purchased debt portfolio was worth PLN 26.6bn (as at the end of Q1 2016), and the number of cases exceeded 3.7 million.
The KRUK Group’s objective is to increase its reach of debtors from the existing portfolio (as well as any portfolios purchased in the future) and thus improve cash recovery rates, providing potential for higher profits. Specific efficiency improvement projects include primarily:
- development of process management,
- development of a network of field advisers,
- improvement of cost efficiency, including through development of IT systems and process automation,
- enhancing marketing communication.