Merger of three mortgage finance specialists set to create new fintech

Germany is seeing the merger of three hitherto independent mortgage and finance brokers to create a new entity which will have greater clout in providing competitive mortgage finance products to private consumers.

The three companies - Baufi 24 Baufinanzierung, Hüttig & Rompf and Creditweb - are joining forces as a newly founded company called Bilthouse Group. Private equity group Nordic Capital will be the majority shareholder, after buying majority stakes in all three companies, and will provide €30m capital for additional investment. All three partner groups have an equal stake in the business.

The three brands together employ about 700 people, and broker around €5bn of mortgage finance annually. The plan is to keep the individual brands alive, while becoming a leader in private real estate financing under the Bilthouse umbrella, the three companies say. The focus of the new group will be on digitalisation and speeding up processes through technology and artificial intelligence.

Tomas Peeters, CEO of Baufi 24 and the future CEO of Bilthouse, said: "Our three brands address different product segments, while providing our clientele with the best possible financing offers in each case. By combining our core competences, together we will enable even more customers to own their own home."

Ditmar Rompf, CEO of Hüttig & Rompf, said the logic was in the complementarity of the three providers' product offerings. "Baufi 24 is one of the largest lead generators for mortgage financing in Germany and, with Finlink, has a digital platform (FinLink) from which all three of us will benefit."

Creditweb specialises in B2B business with brokers and financial intermediaries as well as institutional customers. Hüttig & Rompf focuses on traditional sales. This will retain its important role, with 360 of the 700 employees working in sales.

Horst Kesselkaul, CEO of Creditweb, said that central function such as finance and IT would be handled by the service company, but otherwise the three companies would keep their operations separate, with no closures or redundancies envisaged. The emphasis was on a constant transfer of know-how, learning and training, both virtually and, increasingly, live.

Nordic Capital has strong roots in developing financial services companies, through both organic growth and acquisitions. It currently has six portfolios in the sector, including the online comparison platform Sambla Group, the receivables management company Intrum, the payment service provider Trustly and the digital retail banks Nordax and Bank Norwegian.