The Bertelsmann subsidiary Arvato AG is acquiring Gothia Financial Group headquartered in Norway and thereby combining its financial services activities.  The combination with its subsidiary Arvato Infoscore as a nucleus makes Arvato Europe’s number 3 in the fast growing field of Business Information and Financial Services with a combined revenue of more than EUR 500 million.  Arvato and Herkules Capital, a leading Norwegian Private Equity firm which has owned Gothia since 2008, have agreed not to disclose any financial details.

Gothia Financial Group is a full-service provider for the entire invoice process chain. The company offers its clients solutions that range from invoicing to accounts receivable and liabilities management. With over 1,200 employees and more than 2,000 clients, Gothia is very well established in the Scandinavian countries as well as the UK and Ireland region and has distinct growth opportunities in the GSA region, comprising Germany, Switzerland and Austria, as well as the Netherlands and Spain.

With the combination, Arvato will advance the internationalization of its business information and financial services activities and be able to offer its payment handling solutions to clients all over Europe going forward.  In particular, Arvato will benefit from Gothia’s strong service portfolio in the rapidly growing eCommerce segment as well as in factoring. Potential is to be unlocked notably through the pan-European use of the PayByBill payment solution established by Gothia.  Integration of this product rounds out Arvato Infoscore’s portfolio in B2C factoring, which includes its own Trust’nPay solution.

Achim Berg, CEO of arvato AG and member of the executive board of Bertelsmann, said: “The combination of Arvato Infoscore and Gothia has compelling logic for us – it serves both the Arvato and the Bertelsmann strategy and meets investment criteria perfectly. The market for business information shows an attractive, lasting dynamic and enables high rates of profitable growth. Given the low cyclicality, we’re expanding into a highly resilient market strongly driven by growth areas like eCommerce.”

Rikke Tobiasson Reinemo, Partner Herkules Capital, stated: “Gothia has become a leading European credit management solutions provider with a unique ability to service the entire credit management solutions value chain. During Herkules’ ownership, Gothia has substantially strengthened its organization, market presence and product portfolio at the same time as having solid earnings growth every year. We have had a great cooperation with the strong management team.”

About Arvato:  As a global BPO services provider, Arvato supports business customers all over the world in successfully shaping their customer relationships. 64,000 employees in almost 40 countries design and implement customized solutions for this purpose. These consist of processes such as marketing and CRM services, supply chain management and distribution as well as financial services – all of which are interlinked by integrated IT platforms. Arvato AG is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA. More information to be found at: www.arvato.com.

Source:  Arvato Press Release