SOFIA (Bulgaria), August 24 (SeeNews) – Norwegian debt solutions provider B2Holding, which is selling its Bulgarian subsidiary Debt Collection Agency (DCA), said it saw a 37% annual drop in net revenue in its Europe segment Southeast (SEE). in the second quarter of 2022.

B2Holding’s revenues in SEE during the reporting period amounted to 69 million Norwegian kroner ($7.1 million/7.15 million euros), the company said in an interim financial report on Tuesday. This contrasts with a 14% annual increase in the first quarter.

Adjusted operating profit for B2Holding’s SEE segment, which includes Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Cyprus, fell to 24 million crowns, from 32 million crowns a year earlier and 37 million crowns in the first quarter of this year.

Last week, the Norwegian company announced that it would sell DCA to an unnamed Bulgarian special purpose vehicle for 48.4 million euros ($48 million). The agreement, which is due to be finalized in October, will allow the supplier to focus more on the main markets of the Nordic countries and Poland.

The disposal will reduce B2Holding’s net income by 32 million crowns and triggered a non-cash impairment in the second quarter mainly related to goodwill. The net impact on profit after tax was 105 million crowns.

“Unsecured assets are the dominant asset class in Bulgaria and the strategic fit with other countries included in the ring-fenced structure is limited,” B2Holding chief executive Erik Just Johnsen said in the interim report.

In February, the company announced a senior financing agreement with a company advised by the American asset manager Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO), with most of the portfolios of CEE and SEE, Italy and France to be included in the structure.

During the last quarter, B2Holding separated asset ownership from management and created a new cross-border master servicer, Veraltis Asset Management.

“Bulgaria had mostly insecure wallets and in the region here for Veraltis there are mostly secure wallets. We have now concluded the PIMCO agreement, which is very important for us also for the future,” Johnsen said during the meeting. a presentation of the results on Tuesday.

The cost of collection in Bulgaria is also high, exceeding 30%, while B2Holding is able to redeploy capital with a single-digit marginal cost of collection in its unsecured business, said CFO Andre Adolfsen according to the transcript of the presentation.

“If you look at Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia, we still have a good position. We still have very big investments in those countries. And I would say we are number one in those countries,” added Johnsen.

B2Holding, based in Oslo, operates in twenty-two countries in Europe, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.

(1 Norwegian krone = 0.1037 euro)