TransUnion to acquire Callcredit for $1.4bn
TransUnion acquires Callcredit
Credit reporting agency and risk information provider TransUnion has agreed to acquire Callcredit, the second-largest consumer credit bureau in the UK, reports Julie Muhn at Finovate.
The deal, worth $1.4 billion (£1 billion), is expected to close in Q2-Q3 this year.
TransUnion aims to boost its international presence with this takeover. The US-based company already does business in 33 countries and offers consumer products in India, Hong Kong, South Africa, and Canada. TransUnion also markets regional-specific products, as well as a global suite of solutions, including:
- CreditVision, which leverages credit performance trends, behaviours, and analytics to help banks gain a better understanding of consumers and make more informed lending decisions;
- IDVision, a suite of solutions that offers a more accurate picture of consumer identities to help mitigate and manage risk during the consumer verification and authentication process;
- DecisionEdge, a suite of decisioning solutions that help businesses turn data into actionable decisions;
- Prama, a suite of analytics tools that help lenders gain market intelligence and act on insights to drive growth and build a risk policy.
Jim Peck, TransUnion’s president and CEO, notes that the two companies have “strong synergies” across their business models and solutions, and that they both “share a commitment to using information to benefit consumers and global economies”. He describes Callcredit as “an outstanding acquisition for TransUnion” and says that together, the two will become “a powerful force”.
David Neenan, president of TransUnion’s international business, comments on the company’s international strategy, highlighting Callcredit’s role as a major player in the world’s second-largest credit market. “With the growing trend of multi-bureau usage in the UK, we believe this is the right time to introduce TransUnion into the market,” Neenan says.
Callcredit was founded in 2000 and was acquired by private equity firm GTCR in 2014. The company has 1,200 employees and offices across the UK as well as in Lithuania, Japan, Dubai and Denmark.
TransUnion was founded in 1968 and has corporate headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, US. The company has regional headquarters in Hong Kong, Mumbai, Toronto, Johannesburg, Colombia, and Brazil. Last December, Fiserv leveraged TransUnion’s CreditVision to create better risk models for its Automotive Loan Origination System.
