With 77 billion euros (RM356 billion) of assets under management at the end of 2017, doBank is the leading debt collector in Italy, where a deep recession that ended in 2014 has turned the country into the largest European market for soured bank loans.

doBank, which has a banking license but makes most of its revenues from debt recovery, said on Tuesday it would reorganise its business to free itself from the capital constraints to which banking groups are subject.

The group, which also operates in Greece, is aiming to increase its revenues by an average of 8% to 9% a year in 2017-2020, and generate annual core profit growth of more than 15%.

doBank, 50.1% owned by a vehicle of US fund Fortress Investment Group, said it wanted to pay out as dividend at least 65% of its group income over the plan period.

Fortress, now part of Japan’s Softbank, in 2015 bought the debt collection unit of Italian bank UniCredit and merged it with rival Italfondiario to create doBank.

Competition in Italy’s debt servicing industry has increased in recent years as foreign investors snapped up collection firms to gain a footing in a soured loan market that peaked at 360 billion euros (RM1.67 trillion) in 2015-2016.

Europe’s largest loan recovery firm Intrum Justitia in April agreed to buy the debt collection business of Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo as part of a 3.6 billion euro (RM16.7 billion) deal.

doBank started trading on the Milan bourse roughly a year ago, after an initial public offering that valued the company at 704 million euros (RM3.255 billion). Its market value has since risen to around 880 million euros (RM4.069 billion).