AnaCap Financial Partners (“AnaCap”), a leading financial services specialist mid-market private equity investor, today announces the sale of Equa bank (“Equa”) to Raiffeisen Bank International AG (“RBI”) through its Czech subsidiary Raiffeisenbank a.s.

Based in the Czech Republic, Equa is a tech-enabled full-service challenger bank that focuses on private individuals and Small and Medium Enterprises segments. Equa has an omni-channel distribution strategy that combines an intuitive digital banking platform alongside a selective physical distribution network.
AnaCap has transformed Equa into a market-leading, digitally driven challenger bank. Under AnaCap’s stewardship, the bank has grown its deposit base and loan book by more than 12x, leading to increased market shares across all segments. A strong commitment to digital customer solutions via its market leading digital banking offering has also led to more than 36x growth in revenues. Together with management, AnaCap has successfully implemented an accelerated challenger bank growth strategy with investment in innovation, talent and the effective application of modern technology. The strategy has seen the successful introduction of fully digital onboarding for new-to-bank customers with innovative multi-platform current account applications in tandem with efficient process automation and strong IT security combined with advanced anti-fraud systems and mobile application resilience measures.

Throughout 2020, despite the ongoing wider economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Equa has continued to increase its customer base to just under 480,000 - representing a 13% year-on-year growth and a strong reflection of a Net Promoter Score of 81, compared to the market average of 30. Total balance sheet grew by 15% year-on-year to more than €2.8 billion, while customer deposits increased by 16% to around €2.5 billion.

Tassilo Arnhold, Partner at AnaCap, commented:
“We are delighted with the growth that Equa has enjoyed under AnaCap’s ownership and we now pass it on to RBI for its next stage of development. Equa boasts an excellent team that have successfully built a modern digital banking platform with the strategic advantage of proprietary technology components and sophisticated data analytics with the potential to scale further as the business grows. We are particularly pleased with the strong distribution and underwriting platforms we have helped build. These have given staff the ability to offer high-quality services and competitive pricing levels which has ultimately given Equa a strong position from which to flourish. We thank the team for their efforts and wish them continued success for the next chapter of their journey working with RBI.”

Petr Řehák, Chief Executive Officer at Equa, commented:
“We are very pleased with Equa’s growth story and development as a market-leading, challenger bank during its tenure with AnaCap. We are particularly happy with the sustained implementation of innovative technology as a main growth driver that has enabled our client base to both modernise and enjoy a more efficient end-user experience. We are delighted that Equa has attracted interest from a company with such a track record as RBI and look forward to Equa’s next chapter of growth with them.”
For this transaction, AnaCap received financial advice from Rothschild & Co and legal advice from CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP. The transaction is subject to the usual closing conditions, including regulatory and antitrust approvals.

AnaCap Financial Partners
(www.anacapfp.com)
AnaCap is a leading specialist mid-market private equity investor, investing through complementary Financial Services Private Equity and Credit strategies.

Since 2005 the firm has raised €5.1 billion in gross AUM and completed over 85 primary investments across 15 European jurisdictions and India. We operate out of 6 offices in London, Luxembourg, New Delhi, Mumbai, Madrid and Lisbon.

Our name, AnaCap, defines our investment approach: ‘Analytics before Capital’. Our investment decisions are founded on a disciplined, operational and data-driven investment approach with support from Minerva, our digital proprietary intelligence platform.

Leveraging our deep expertise as Financial Sector investors, owners and operators, we are an active investor and generate value in Private Equity through our intense operational engagement model and carefully calibrated M&A programmes. In Credit, our active asset management approach focuses on using data intelligently to enhance recoveries and provide servicing solutions.

Raiffeisen Bank International
(https://www.rbinternational.com/en/homepage.html)
RBI regards Austria, where it is a leading corporate and investment bank, as well as Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as its home market. 13 markets of the region are covered by subsidiary banks. Additionally, the RBI Group comprises numerous other financial service providers, for instance in leasing, asset management or M&A.
Around 46,000 employees service 16.8 million customers through approx. 2,000 business outlets, the by far largest part thereof in CEE. RBI's shares are listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange. The Austrian regional Raiffeisen banks own around 58.8 per cent of the shares, the remainder is in free float. Within the Austrian Raiffeisen Banking Group, RBI is the central institute of the regional Raiffeisen banks and other affiliated credit institutions.

Raiffeisenbank
(https://www.rb.cz)
Raiffeisenbank has been providing an extensive range of banking services to both private and corporate clients since 1993. The bank attends clients all over the Czech Republic. According to the volume of total assets, Raiffeisenbank is the Czech market’s fifth largest bank. The bank's majority shareholder is Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI).