Total operating revenues

Operating profit (EBIT)

Profit/(loss) after tax

Net interest-bearing debt

Total assets

Equity ratio

Basic earnings per share (EPS)

*Including the Group’s share of portfolios purchased and held in SPVs and joint ventures

**Cash EBITDA 2020 is restated to exclude non-recurring items

3,155

1,308

573

9,067

15,315

33 %

1.40

B2Holding operates in multiple countries and is

therefore implicitly exposed to different economic

and political regimes.

Changes in the economic and political environment

The Group maintains an on-going dialogue with

the local management teams and conducts

regular checks on the macroeconomic and political

an important topic on the agenda for B2Holding,

with both the Management and the Board commit-

ted to minimise the Group’s carbon footprint and

address relevant risks arising due to climate change

and actively support transitioning to Net-Zero.

B2Holding has conducted an internal assessment

on climate risk following the industry-standard

TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial

Disclosures) framework using an external con -

sultancy organization in conjunction with the

Management. The outcome of the workshop

graded the climate impact as low.

However, B2Holding expects that regulatory

climate-related risk exposure will increase in

markets where B2Holding is present.

B2Holding is dependent on access to financing, from

banks, financial institutions, and from the capital

markets through the issuance of bonds and share

capital to have sufficient liquidity available to meet

its contractual obligations.

The Group’s capacity to assume risk is determined

by the Board of Directors.

B2Holding’s policy is to always have liquidity

available to cover the contractual financial

forward flows and outstanding binding portfolio

investment offers, operating within bank and

financing covenants restrictions.

The capital threshold for equity in the loan

ships with the financing banks, financial institu-

tions, bond investors and credit rating agencies.

B2Holding is exposed to fluctuations in exchange

and interest rates. These risks can affect the

earnings and financing costs as B2Holding’s

part of the Group’s business is carried out in Euros

To mitigate the currency risk the Group uses a

multicurrency bank facility (borrowing in EUR, SEK,

PLN) and has bond loans denominated in Euros

countries, investments, revenues, and operating

However, portfolios acquired in specific countries

such as Croatia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria

and Romania are financed in Euros due to limited

possibilities for medium and long-term hedging

arrangements when borrowing in those currencies.

Croatia and Bulgaria have pegged their currency

to the Euro.

which results in operating expenses incurred in

NOK without a revenue stream originating in

NOK to offset them.

B2Holding is exposed to changes in interest rates

since the Group’s debt has an element of floating

interest rate. The Group employs hedging strate-

gies that enable B2Holding to, within certain limits,

hedge its interest exposure and hence monitor and

reduce overall interest rate risk exposure.

Currency and interest rates exposure are regularly

not meeting their contractual obligations.

For B2Holding, this refers mainly to receivables

arising from acquired NPL portfolios, cash and cash

equivalents, and outlays on behalf of clients.

NPL portfolio risks are addressed under investments

risk.

For cash and cash equivalents, these are deposited

with established banks where the risk of loss is

remote. For counterparty risks, the Group deals

primarily with known counterparties with good

tries to make a profit from these investments by

assuming all rights and risks arising from these

transactions.

The Group needs access to a pipeline of NPLs that

it can invest in at rates of return that are attractive

to the Group.

The risk on this type of business is that losses may

be incurred by over-estimating collections or the

timing of them, or by under-estimating the costs

to collect.

prices and therefore the risk is partially mitigated

through pricing and expected returns. Furthermore,

the Group’s assets are diversified both in terms

graphical location across more than 20 countries.

Access to NPLs is dependent on supply (banks

reputation (license to operate, i.e. wanting to sell

to B2Holding), and pricing being attractive to

B2Holding (competitiveness, risk appetite, WACC

etc.). In order to be competitive, the Group focuses

local legislation. The transposition and implementa-

tion of this Directive in the EU jurisdictions where

the Group operates will duly be closely monitored

during the upcoming years in order to ensure timely

compliance with the new requirements.

In particular, this will be addressed at the local level

by co-operating with policymakers and by actively

participating in industry associations that develop

standards and best practices and by promoting the

role of the industry in supporting the health and

positively engage with the Company. It is therefore

crucial to B2Holding that its customers are always

fairly treated.

The Group places great emphasis on reputation

and relationships with all stakeholders: clients,

customers, employees, board members, investors

authorities and suppliers.

The Group is currently establishing a Collection

Management Framework which will be implemented

across the Group in 2022.

The Group expects its Business Partners to comply

with these ethical standards, principles and behav-

iours when conducting business with or on behalf of

B2Holding.

All Business Units have a Compliance function which

closely follows up on collection practices and internal

standards to ensure that good ethical practices are

is always a risk of illegal infringement and access

to the systems, giving unauthorised access

to information, loss of data through malicious

software or illegal exploitation on the Company’s

behalf through phishing.

out at both local entity and Group level. For Group

intrusion is in place.

In 2021, the Group has strengthened cyber security

vulnerability scanning applicable to both Group and

local environments.

In 2021, B2Holding also started a program to up-

grade the Group IT Architecture, Governance and

Security. These measures will be carried forward

to 2022 and are forward looking, using the latest

laundering attempts.

Therefore, there is a risk that employees will use

their position of power in order to benefit them-

selves, or to influence decision makers.

B2Holding also faces being exploited to money

laundering from criminal activities through insuffi-

cient knowledge of clients or through the payment

of transactions undertaken.

takes a firm stand against Money Laundering (ML)

and Terrorist Financing (TF) as outlined in the Group

AML, TF and Sanction policy.

The fight against Money Laundering, which is closely

related to other forms of serious and organised crime

as well as to the financing of terrorism, has become a

global priority over recent years. At the EU level, this

is translated into the AML Package presented by the

EU Commission in July 2021.

The Group is currently finalizing the Group Third

Party Assessment Policy and working on the

Anti-Bribery and Corruption (ABC) Policy. These

Group Policies will set minimum standards for all

Business Units of the Group.

To ensure compliance with the principles, rules

and processes foreseen in the EU Whistleblowing

Directive, which had to be transposed by EU Member

States into local legislation by 17 December 2021,

B2Holding implemented a Group Whistleblowing

locally and at the Group level in order to handle

Whistleblowing reports and to conduct investi-

gations. The Whistleblowing functions have been

trained and all employees have completed a manda-

tory e-learning training on Whistleblowing.

Employees are expected to report suspected cases

of corruption, bribery, money laundering or any other

illegal activities using the Whistleblowing channel.

The Group is committed to attracting and retaining

B2Holding puts a strong emphasis on common

values, engagement and continuous development

and established a common Learning Management

System during 2021.

All Group entities have Employment and Training

policies which are compliant with local laws and

regulations, and all entities monitor and manage

their employee turnover ratios.

Efforts to reduce key individual dependency

is amongst other measures, reduced through

succession planning and via the automation of

work processes.