(Reuters) – Italy’s doValue said its new contracts to recoup bad loans across southern Europe this year could reach 52 billion euros ($55 billion), after its loan portfolio shrank nearly by a fifth in 2022 due to the loss a key contract in Spain.
The Verona-based debt recovery firm on Thursday reported a net profit excluding non-recurring items of 50.6 million euros for 2022, a tad below a company-provided analyst consensus of 53 million.
Gross revenues totalled 558 million euros, lagging a 565 million euro average analyst forecast.
Collections on the loan portfolio stood at 5.5 billion euros in the full year, slightly below the 5.7 billion euros doValue managed to recoup in 2021.
The gross book value of loans under management stood at 120.5 billion euros at the end of December, following the end of the deal with Spain’s bad loan manager Sareb, which took 20.5 billion euros off doValue’s loan book.
The company, which was spun off from UniCredit and has Softbank Group and Bain Capital Credit as its main shareholders, targets 160 billion euros in loans under management by the end 2024.
“The pipeline of potential servicing mandates … is likely to grow further in the coming quarters,” doValue said, forecasting a rise in impaired bank loans on the back of higher interest rates and soaring inflation. ($1 = 0.9452 euros)
(Reporting by Carlo Giovanni Boffa, editing by Valentina Za)
