We are an international specialty finance company providing debt recovery
solutions for consumers and property owners across a broad range of financial
assets.
Portfolio Purchasing and Recovery Business
We purchase portfolios of defaulted consumer receivables at deep discounts to
face value and manage them by working with individuals as they repay their obligations
and work toward financial recovery. Defaulted receivables are consumers’
unpaid financial commitments to credit originators, including banks, credit
unions, consumer finance companies, commercial retailers, and telecommunication
companies. Defaulted receivables may also include receivables subject to bankruptcy
proceedings.
United States
Through certain subsidiaries, we are a market leader in portfolio purchasing
and recovery in the United States, including Puerto Rico.
Europe
Through our controlling interest in United Kingdom-based Cabot Credit Management
Limited (“Cabot”), we are a market leader in debt management in
the United Kingdom and Ireland. Cabot specializes in collecting higher balance,
“semi-performing” accounts (i.e., debt portfolios in which over
50% of the accounts have received a payment in three of the last four months
immediately prior to the portfolio purchase). In February 2014, Cabot acquired
Marlin Financial Group Limited (“Marlin”), a leading acquirer of
non-performing consumer debt in the United Kingdom. Marlin is differentiated
by its use of litigation-enhanced collections for non-paying financial services
receivables, which complements Cabot’s management of semi-performing accounts.
On June 1, 2015, Cabot continued to expand in the United Kingdom with its acquisition
of Hillesden Securities Ltd and its subsidiaries (“dlc”).
We own a majority ownership interest in Grove Holdings (“Grove”).
Through its subsidiaries Grove is a leading specialty investment firm focused
on consumer non-performing loans, including insolvencies in the United Kingdom
(in particular, individual voluntary arrangements, or IVAs) and bank and non-bank
receivables in Spain. To date, operating results from Grove have been immaterial
to our total consolidated operating results.
Latin America
Through our majority ownership interest in Refinancia S.A. (“Refinancia”),
we are a market leader in debt collection and management in Colombia and Peru.
In addition to purchasing defaulted receivables, Refinancia offers portfolio
management services to banks for non-performing loans. Refinancia also specializes
in non-traditional niches in the geographic areas in which it operates, including
providing financial solutions to individuals who have previously defaulted on
their obligations. In addition to operations in Colombia and Peru, we evaluate
and purchase non-performing loans in other countries in Latin America, including
Mexico and Brazil. Beginning in December 2014, we began investing in non-performing
secured residential mortgages in Latin America. To date, operating results from
our Latin America operations have not been significant to our total consolidated
operating results.
Through our subsidiary, Propel Acquisition, LLC and its subsidiaries and affiliates
(collectively, “Propel”), we acquire and service residential and
commercial tax liens on real property. To the extent permitted by local law,
Propel works directly with property owners to structure affordable payment plans
by paying delinquent property taxes on behalf of such property owners in exchange
for payment agreements collateralized by tax liens on the related properties
and purchases tax liens directly from taxing authorities in several states.
The foundation of our success is our people, our organizational agility, and
our integrity. This foundation supports strengths in four key areas, which we
refer to as our pillars:
Superior Analytics, including our extensive investments in data and behavioral
science and our use of sophisticated predictive modeling techniques;
Operational Scale and Cost Leadership, driven by our specialized call centers,
efficient international operations, and the continuing expansion of our internal
legal platform;
Strong Capital Stewardship, underpinned by our disciplined ability to raise
and deploy capital prudently; and
Extendable Business Model, driven by our scalable platform that supports strategic
investment opportunities in new asset classes and geographic areas.
Although we have enabled millions of consumers to retire a portion of their
outstanding debt, one of the debt collection industry’s most formidable
challenges is that many financially distressed consumers will never make a payment,
much less retire their total debt obligation. In fact, we generate payments
from less than one percent of our accounts every month. To address these challenges,
we evaluate portfolios of receivables that are available for purchase using
robust, account-level valuation methods, and we employ proprietary statistical
and behavioral models across all our operations. We believe these business practices
contribute to our ability to value portfolios accurately, avoid buying portfolios
that are incompatible with our methods or goals, and align the accounts we purchase
with our operational channels to maximize future collections. We also have one
of the industry’s largest databases of financially distressed consumers.
We believe that our specialized knowledge, along with our investments in data
and analytic tools, have enabled us to realize significant returns from the
receivables we have acquired. We maintain strong relationships with many of
the largest credit providers in the United States. In addition, through our
international subsidiaries, we maintain strong relationships with many of the
largest credit providers in the European and the Latin American markets we serve.