Cattles sells business to cut debt

Cattles, a sub-prime lender that has £850m of bad debts, has sold its invoice financing arm to a company affiliated to Anacap Financial Partners.

The sale will allow Cattles to repay bank debts of about £65.5m. It also provides Cattles with the opportunity to simplify their operating model, focus on its core businesses and work to achieve a formal standstill agreement with its main financial creditors.

For Anacap, who recently announced the closure of a further round of financing to support its acquisition strategy in the Financial Services sector, it demonstrates a keen desire to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves in the current recession.

It would not be a surprise to see Anacap making further attempts to build on its investment in the invoice discounting business, generating scale economies and much needed liquidity for business facing cash recovery issues arising from large debtors insisting on extended payment terms.

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