According to an article in the German publication Wirtschaftswoche, Schufa, the largest German credit bureau may be sold by its owners. Two of Schufa’s shareholders, the Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank are in discussions with financial investors concerning the sale of their shares in Schufa. The Schufa owners also include other German credit institutions.
According to the article a complete sale of Schufa may also be under discussion. The talks were initiated by an expression of interest from the financial investor EQT. In the meantime, other private equity firms, including Hellman & Friedman, are among the interlocutors. Schufa could be valued at two billion euros in the event of a sale, which would be 10x revenue.
Current valuations of credit bureau operators, such as Equifax, Experian and TransUnion are in the 5-6x revenue range. Given the extensive competitive pressures in the German market and the European Banks development of its own credit bureau called AnaCredit, the quoted potential acquisition price may be unrealistic. AnaCredit is a dataset containing detailed information on individual bank loans in the euro area, harmonised across all Member States. “AnaCredit” stands for analytical credit datasets. The data sets collected from banks are similar of what is currently collected from banks by Schufa. AnaCredit is to share data with banks, but not with commercial enterprises such as Schufa, according to a source close to the subject.
According to Schufa’s website, the company’s database covers 67 million German individuals and 6 million businesses. Its annual revenue is approximately Euros 212.2 million. Schufa is owned by a number of German financial institutions.
Source: Diverse Press Coverage
