Atradius Buys Portuguese B2B Collections Firm Gestifatura

Atradius Collections has purchased Gestifatura, the Portuguese collections company, and has grown its footprint to 34 nations, according to a Monday (March 1) announcement.

Atradius Collections has grown its international presence into Portugal on the heels of opening new offices in Indonesia, Morocco and Dubai in the last two years. The purchase backs Atradius Collections’ long-term aims of continually furthering its understanding of local markets and its existence in them.

Understanding of local business methods and culture is essential to performing well in debt collections, according to the announcement, which said that a foothold in Portgual lets the company offer better debt collection services to clients that are owed money by borrowers in the area.

“Customers expect us to collect their outstanding receivables while respecting the local business practices and culture. By opening a location in Portugal, we meet those expectations and it follows our strategic direction to strengthen even more our understanding of local businesses and our service delivery,” Atradius Collections COO Rudi De Greve said in the announcement.

Atradius Collections says it offers trade invoice collection services in 96 percent of the nations in the world. The company’s offerings range from “accounts receivable management outsourcing and third-party collections to legal collections,” according to the announcement.

Cash flow problems have always been an problem for small companies, although per PYMNTS data, the pandemic period has added urgency to the problem. Approximately 37 percent of Main Street small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) reported facing cash flow shortages in the early months of COVID-19, with 26 percent utilizing their personal credit cards to even out shortages.

A massive part of the problem, Penny Co-Founder and CEO Colin Gunnell told PYMNTS in a recent conversation, is that SMBs need to spend too much time chasing payments or accelerating them. On average, in the United Kingdom, where Penny is based, he said small companies will dedicate 32 working days per year seeking and recovering the funds that they are owed.