Bank of Scotland buys remainder of ICC-Heller

Bank of Scotland (Ireland) will target aggressively the Republic's invoice discounting market following the takeover of one of the sector's key players ICC-Heller.

The value of the transaction has not been disclosed but the group has a 5-10 per cent share of the invoice discounting market in Ireland which provides financing to companies with combined annual revenues of around €8 billion.

Bank of Scotland (Ireland) - formerly ICC - established ICC-Heller in 1998 as a joint venture with NMB-Heller, a UK-based group which provides finance to companies worldwide.

Following the transaction announced yesterday, Bank of Scotland (Ireland) has bought out NMB-Heller, and ICC-Heller now becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of Scotland (Ireland).

The group specialises in providing finance to businesses particularly where companies need to finance their operations in the short term while waiting to be paid by debtors.

It charges a fee for the service and interest, known as discounting.

It also provides finance for mergers, acquisitions and management buy-outs.

Mr Mark Duffy, chief executive of Bank of Scotland (Ireland), said the acquisition was part of the group's strategy to become the Republic's "number one business bank by 2005".

ICC-Heller general manager, Mr Arthur Callanan, said invoice discounting provided the means for companies to grow rapidly and was an essential part of funding for many management buy-outs and mergers.

"Businesses can use invoice discounting as a simple, cost-effective method of raising working capital finance by converting trade debtors into cash immediately," he said.

"Companies expanding can access more cash to improve cash flow where they are required to give credit to their own customers."

He added that his company was now targeting rapid growth and would be working closely with Bank of Scotland (Ireland) to achieve this.

ICC-Heller has a wide variety of clients in Ireland particularly in the manufacturing and services sectors. It has a staff of around 20, all of whom are based in Dublin.