In the endeavor of private equity for the Schufa, the financial investor EQT made the first step.

After an agreement with Schufa shareholder Société Générale to acquire a package of around 9.8 percent, the Scandinavian holding company is now aiming for a majority in the credit agency.

According to information from the FAZ, EQT has announced that it will expand the range of services and make it more consumer-friendly.

In addition, the investor would provide external industry experts for the supervisory bodies.

Klaus Max Smolka

Editor in business.

  • Follow I follow

EQT sees a “reform backlog” of the Schufa, resulting from the structure of purely dividend-oriented owners, can be heard in financial circles.

Furthermore, the investors could internationalize the business and optimize internal processes in sales and customer management.

These would be typical measures with which a private equity company increases the value of an investment before it exits again - typically after three to seven years.

Shares should have been sold for some time

In the spring, private equity efforts at the Schufa had become known.

Among other things, Hellman & Friedman from the United States is said to have shown interest, but also EQT.

The company's value was and is still estimated at around 2 billion euros.

Shareholders of Schufa - according to reports, namely Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank - have been looking at handing over parcels for a long time.

The Schufa - abbreviated for "Protection Association for General Loan Assurance" - assesses citizens according to their creditworthiness and sells the data to companies.

According to its own information, the company has data on 68 million natural persons and 6 million companies.

It sells 490,000 a day - for credit transactions when buying a car, paying by installments for furniture or electronics, making online purchases and cell phone contracts.

The company is criticized as a data vacuum cleaner with too much information power, tries to present itself as consumer-friendly at the same time - because citizens can use the knowledge of society to prove trustworthiness as tenants and obtain information about companies.

According to Schufa, there are more than 10,000 corporate customers, including banks, savings banks, trading companies and telecommunications providers.

Schufa was founded in 1927.

The shareholders are 35 percent commercial banks, 26 percent savings banks and almost 18 percent private banks, 8 percent cooperative banks.

According to their own account, “trade and others” make up 13 percent.