Waterland: coeo Inkasso acquires KNP Financial Services in Austria

Hamburg/Dormagen/Vienna — coeo Inkasso, a receiv­a­bles manage­ment service provi­der in Water­land Private Equity’s corpo­rate port­fo­lio, is acqui­ring KNP Finan­cial Services GmbH. KNP is a leading provi­der of coll­ec­tion services in Austria and prima­rily serves corpo­rate custo­mers in the e‑commerce sector. For coeo Inkasso, the inte­gra­tion of KNP means entry into the Austrian market. The sellers are the two foun­ders and mana­ging direc­tors of the company Anton Moser and Wolf­gang Hetlin­ger. They will remain in manage­ment after the sale. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the tran­sac­tion, which is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties. The invest­ment company Water­land had acqui­red a majo­rity stake in coeo Inkasso in Febru­ary 2018.

KNP Finan­cial Services, which is head­quar­te­red in Vienna and has around 30 employees, aims to improve the liqui­dity of its custo­mers and also relies on highly auto­ma­ted proces­ses. A modern infra­struc­ture, powerful inter­faces and a custo­mi­zed work­flow enable effec­tive receiv­a­bles manage­ment. Last year, KNP proces­sed around 100,000 new claims. KNP bene­fits from its inte­gra­tion into the coeo Inkasso Group prima­rily in the area of custo­mer acqui­si­tion and through access to a large and stable indus­try network.

coeo Inkasso was foun­ded in 2010 and is now based in Dorma­gen. The company offers fidu­ciary coll­ec­tion, debt purchase and credit reports in the e‑commerce, retail, tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons and energy sectors. More than 250 employees curr­ently work for coeo Inkasso, and the service provi­der takes on more than 1,200,000 new receiv­a­bles every year.

Wolf­gang Hetlin­ger, foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor of KNP, is plea­sed about the deepe­ning of the part­ner­ship: “We have alre­ady worked very successfully with coeo Inkasso in the past — espe­ci­ally in the joint acqui­si­tion of new custo­mers. The deepe­ning of our coope­ra­tion brings many oppor­tu­ni­ties: there are opera­tio­nal points of cont­act, for exam­ple, in the struc­tu­red exch­ange of know­ledge for opti­mi­zing service quality.” Anton Moser, co-foun­­der and Mana­ging Direc­tor at KNP, adds: “Our coll­ec­tion proces­ses are alre­ady highly auto­ma­ted. Toge­ther with coeo Inkasso, we want to make them even more effi­ci­ent. Above all, we will drive inno­va­tions in the topic area of advan­ced analy­tics in a targe­ted manner.”

Sebas­tian Ludwig, Mana­ging Direc­tor at coeo Inkasso, sees the inte­gra­tion of KNP as an important mile­stone in the further deve­lo­p­ment of the company: “With KNP, coeo Inkasso succeeds in ente­ring the Austrian market. In addi­tion, we are further expan­ding our exper­tise in the e‑commerce sector. The deepe­ning of our part­ner­ship brings immense bene­fits to both companies.”

Dr. Cars­ten Rahlfs, Mana­ging Part­ner at Water­land, comm­ents: “With our port­fo­lio compa­nies, we prima­rily rely on buy & build stra­te­gies to deve­lop them further. To this end, we also support the search for well-posi­­tio­­ned compa­nies that have strong growth and are leaders in their indus­try. The receiv­a­bles manage­ment market is still highly frag­men­ted, parti­cu­larly in German-spea­king count­ries, and a conso­li­da­tion of coeo Inkasso and KNP will signi­fi­cantly streng­then the posi­tion of both companies.”

The inde­pen­dent invest­ment company Water­land has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the field of “Outsour­cing and Effi­ci­ency”. In German-spea­king count­ries, for exam­ple, Water­land has a stake in the Serrala Group. From its head­quar­ters in Hamburg, the finan­cial soft­ware specia­list supports over 2,500 compa­nies world­wide with forward-looking tech­no­logy for opti­mi­zed payment tran­sac­tions and rela­ted finan­cial processes.

About coeo Inkasso
coeo Inkasso stands for intel­li­gent receiv­a­bles manage­ment and combi­nes “know­ledge from expe­ri­ence” with “man and machine” exper­tise. As a result, new data-driven, beha­­vior-orien­­ted, and custo­mer value-preser­­ving coll­ec­tion stra­te­gies are constantly emer­ging. The company was foun­ded in 2010. In 2011, it took over the busi­ness opera­ti­ons of the receiv­a­bles service provi­der Forum Inkasso GmbH. This was follo­wed in 2012 by the acqui­si­tion of the busi­ness opera­ti­ons of acor­eus Coll­ec­tion Services GmbH. coeo Inkasso curr­ently employs over 250 staff and takes on over 1,200,000 new receiv­a­bles files every year.

About KNP
KNP Finan­cial Services GmbH was foun­ded in 2011 and stands for modern and inno­va­tive receiv­a­bles manage­ment with the aim of impro­ving the liqui­dity of its clients. KNP curr­ently employs 30 staff based in Vienna and takes on over 100,000 new receiv­a­bles files every year.

About Water­land
Water­land is an inde­pen­dent private equity invest­ment firm that helps compa­nies realize their growth plans. With substan­tial finan­cial support and indus­try exper­tise, Water­land enables its port­fo­lio compa­nies to achieve acce­le­ra­ted growth both orga­ni­cally and through acqui­si­ti­ons. Water­land has offices in the Nether­lands (Bussum), Belgium (Antwerp), Germany (Hamburg, Munich), Poland (Warsaw), the UK (Manches­ter), Denmark (Copen­ha­gen) and Switz­er­land (Zurich). Curr­ently, six billion euros in equity funds are under management.