Callcredit checks out £1bn buyers

ONE of Britain’s biggest creditchecking agencies may be about to change hands for up to £1 billion.

City sources said the US owners of Leeds-based Callcredit have been talking to corporate financiers from Credit Suisse and Jefferies about finding a buyer for the business. The potential sale comes three years after GTCR, a Chicago-based private equity firm, bought Callcredit for £480 million from Vitruvian Partners, a British investment group.

Callcredit was set up in 2000 by the Skipton Building Society and has grown fast. Its clients include banks, insurers and payday lenders, all keen to check how creditworthy their customers are.

Bankers expect the firm – which has been dubbed a ‘mini-Experian’ because of its resemblance to the FTSE 100-listed credit-checking agency – to be sold for between £800 million and £1 billion.

The move comes at a turbulent time for the credit referencing industry. Last month, US group Equifax revealed that a security breach had exposed the social security data of 143 million Americans. It later said that about 400,000 Britons may have had their information stolen.

Callcredit declined to comment, while GTCR didn’t return calls.