Our goals and ambitions

B2Holding has a strong position as one of the leading players in Europe. While the year 2020 showed us how quickly the surroundings can change, we demonstrated that our strategy and business model is resilient in challenging times. During 2020 we have reinforced our strategy where the main pillars continue to be profitable growth through focused investments in our core markets and to strengthen the Group’s servicing capabilities.

Focus on core markets

At the end of 2020, the Group had platforms in 22 European countries and see significant opportunities through this position. A main part of our strategy going forward is to strengthen the focus on core markets with growth potential and of strategic importance for the Group whereby efficiency is more important than footprint.

In 2020 the Group exited Portugal and has created a centralized hub in the Czech Republic for some of the smaller platforms. By concentrating on core markets and in parallel develop a more cost-efficient operating model, the Group aims to achieve a better return on invested capital.

Efficient operations

While our investments were kept at a low level in a market with high uncertainty and low visibility due to the pandemic, we focused our efforts on strengthening our operations and organization. Our strategy is transforming the Group towards a more cost-efficient model, where efficiency is preferred versus footprint and with more unified operations. The main part of this strategy is a three-year programme to transform all business processes using data and analytics.

Digital transformation is a main priority within our unsecured business line and has accelerated with the pandemic. The digitalization of services aims to improve both business outcomes and customer experience and is considered key to maintaining our competitiveness in the market.

For the secured business line, a reorganisation of the Secured Asset Management team, followed by a revised strategy for all larger secured claims have been completed in 2020. This has resulted in better insight into our secured assets. Based on the recoveries of secured claims during 2020 in combination with the extensive re-underwriting carried out throughout the year, we are confident that new resolution strategies will deliver additional value. The growth will be maintained and supported through co-investments and servicing.

Increased servicing capabilities

With platforms in 22 European markets, we have gained capabilities and capacity to not only purchase and collect on owned portfolios but also to be a servicer of assets owned by other investors, mainly international funds specializing in NPL investments. Leveraging the Group’s servicing capabilities by increasing assets under management continues to be an important focus going forward.

Following the pandemic, we expect growing NPL volumes in existing markets and the Group will focus on increased growth in core markets through a combination of own portfolio investments, forward flow deals, co-investments and full collection and recovery servicing.