STOCKHOLM, Sweden, June 27, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- Nordea Bank Finland Plc and Nordea Finance Finland Ltd have agreed to sell the debt collection company Contant Oy to the funds managed by Sponsor Capital Oy. Contant is one of the two leading debt collection companies in Finland and it has until now been a wholly owned company of Nordea.
The majority shareholder of the new company will be the development company Sponsor. Nordea will remain a minority shareholder, holding about one third of the shares. The sales price of all the shares of Contant is EUR 28 million. Nordea receives a capital gain of about EUR 22.3 million.
All Contant's 250 employees remain employed by the company. Nordea will also continue to cooperate with Contant.
"This deal shows that we want to focus on our core business - the sale of financial services. However, we continue our close cooperation with Contant as we know that their services are very competitive in the market," said Kari Jordan, Head of Retail Banking Finland.
Lassi Karppinen, the present managing director, will continue as managing director of Contant. Kaj Hagglund, partner of Sponsor Capital, will be chairman of the board of directors.
For further information:
Kari Jordan, Head of Retail Banking Finland, +358 9 165 42047
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