THE SALE of the Irish Credit Bureau will not go ahead, The Irish Timeshas learned.
The bureau, which is owned by the main banks and financial institutions, has been on the market since March. However, shareholders in the company were told at the company’s annual meeting this week that it was not continuing with the sales process.
A spokesman for the bureau said yesterday that a sale was not in the best interest of stakeholders at the current time. “Given current economic conditions and associated uncertainty, it is the board’s view . . . that the true underlying value of the business will not be realised through a sale.”
The Irish Credit Bureau is a credit register that collates information on the credit history and arrangements of bank customers. More than 80 lending institutions register information with the bureau on a monthly basis.
The bureau was put on the market in March, with Goodbody Corporate Finance managing the sale. Interested parties were whittled down to five in recent weeks.
It is believed that low bids from prospective buyers closed off the option of a sale. Reports of valuations of up to €100 million on the business were said to be significantly off the mark, according to market sources.
Among the parties reported to have been in the running for the bureau were Experian, Equifax and Kerry-based financial services group Fexco Holdings, which last week bought AIB’s Goodbody Stockbrokers for what was regarded as the knockdown price of €24 million.
The decision not to proceed with the sale will have implications for Bank of Ireland’s sale of its 17 per cent stake in the company. Under its restructuring plan submitted to the European Commission earlier this year, Bank of Ireland committed to off-loading six assets, including its stake in the Irish Credit Bureau.
While no comment was available from the bank yesterday, it is believed the sale of the stake will not now proceed. It is believed that the bank’s stake in the bureau is worth only a nominal sum.
The Central Bank and Financial Regulator’s report on banking supervision, published in June, called for the establishment of a new credit register or the strengthening of the existing legislation under which private registers operate.
It said Ireland had not followed the model of many continental European countries in operating a centralised credit register, and that the Irish Credit Bureau – the only such register operating in Ireland – failed to fulfil this function in its current form.
The Irish Credit Bureau was formed in 1965.
