Skipton sells majority stake in Callcredit
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Skipton Building Society has sold its majority stake in credit reference and marketing services subsidiary Callcredit Information Group.
Vitruvian Partners, the London-based private equity firm, has purchased Skipton’s share for an undisclosed sum with the full support of CIG’s management team.
The deal generates around £40m of additional profit for Skipton.
Vitruvian Partners will take Skipton’s place on the Board and is looking to inject fresh investment, ideas and experience into the business’s future development. However, CIG will continue to pursue its clear strategic direction under its current leadership.
David Cutter, chief executive of Skipton Group, says: “CIG has been a major success story for Skipton of which we are very proud.
“Our support and guidance has enabled the business to penetrate the credit referencing and marketing information markets and, in doing so, to become a serious rival to the major players, from which it continues to take market share.
“Following a strategic review, Skipton decided CIG was no longer core to our future business direction.
“At the same time, CIG has huge further potential and is now ready to enter the next stage of its development as an independent business with ambitious aspirations.
“Therefore we concluded that this is the appropriate time for CIG to move on and for its next growth phase to be supported by private equity, rather than ourselves as a member-owned building society.
“We’re delighted to have achieved such a positive outcome for CIG’s staff, and for Skipton, and this substantial boost to our profitability and financial strength will provide a real shot in the arm for our own future business ambitions.”
CIG was established in 2000 and now has over 600 employees and annual turnover of around £50m. Last year it recorded profits of £5m.
John McAndrew, chief executive of CIG, added: “We are extremely grateful for the help and support of Skipton over the past nine years.
“We have a reputation for differentiating ourselves through innovation and delivering outstanding value and service. To do this, we have been investing in people, technology and new products. We now have plans to explore new markets and geographies and are very optimistic that this change of ownership will provide us with the impetus to achieve our goals.
“We’re delighted that Vitruvian Partners emerged as the buyer because they are committed to supporting our existing business strategy as well as our vision of growth through both organic development and acquisition.”
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