Dun deal sees local credit agency sold

David Emery, left, Christine Christian and John Scott. Photo / Herald on Sunday

American corporate Dun and Bradstreet has bought back its New Zealand and Australian operations in a A$233 million ($296 million) deal.

It comes nine years after current Australasian CEO Christine Christian lead a management buyout of the credit-reporting agency backed by AMP Capital.

After another private equity owner and significant growth, the Australasian division has caught its former parent's eye because of the opportunities in the region.

Revenue has grown 130 per cent since the management buyout, in no small part due to D&B Australasia's decision to move into the consumer credit market.

NYSE-listed Dun and Bradstreet Corp's traditional business was commercial credit reporting, risk assessment and the like, but consumer loans were becoming a larger part of financiers' loan portfolio, Christian said.

Rival reporting agency Veda Advantage had been the only player doing consumer reporting in Australasia and so the newly independent D&B Australasia diversified into that market in 2004.

"The market was really looking for competition," Christian said. "We realised quickly that Australia and New Zealand were laggards in this market in terms of the types of data that was available to lenders."

Since then, it has embarked on educating the public and lobbying the Australian and New Zealand authorities to introduce "positive" credit reporting, whereby lenders can have access to a wider range of information about people.

Both countries are now considering a move to positive reporting.

In Australia, Dun and Bradstreet has launched the free service, dnbcreditreport.com.au, allowing individuals to access their own credit histories.

Christian said that in the first month, thousands of Australians looked up their records.

It hopes to be able to make the service available in this country once the credit-reporting regulations are changed.

D&B holds credit records on 10 million Australians and more than 1.5 million New Zealanders.

David Emery, president of D&B Asia Pacific, said there were already three consumer credit-reporting players in the US and so it didn't make sense for the company to expand into that area there.

However, it would now be looking to roll out the Australasian model around the world.

"We will go market by market ... with the expertise created here."

He said opportunities in Asia were also a key attraction in picking up the Australasian business again.

With the global financial crisis, the corporate's clients had looked to go to the region where there was still some growth.

Christian said China, India and Japan were becoming increasingly important as trading partners to New Zealand and Australia.

"In doing so, our customers require better information in Asia, and vice versa."

The company has recently launched an online "D&B seal" which corporates put on their website to prove they have been authenticated and verified by Dun and Bradstreet.

The service will be available here by the end of the year.

"This ties in to all the anti-money laundering and terrorism, 'know your company' area," New Zealand country manager John Scott said.

Dun and Bradstreet

* NYSE listed

* Holds information on 163 million corporates in 193 countries

* Australian turnover A$100 million

* New Zealand turnover A$10 million