cadac group

What cadac group does

Ascent Performance Group Limited, trading as Ascent, is a specialist debt recovery law firm headquartered at One St Peter's Square, Manchester, with additional operations in Glasgow and Sheffield. The firm is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lantern Group Holdings Limited and operates within the wider Irwin Mitchell Group ecosystem. It is authorised and regulated by both the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), and is the only firm in its market segment accredited by the Lending Standards Board. Ascent serves leading UK banks, major corporates, national house builders, and housing associations, providing outsourced debt recovery, arrears management, litigation, enforcement, field services, trace investigation and shared equity loan administration across England, Wales and Scotland.

The firm's product suite spans the full debt lifecycle: telephone and letter-based collections (consumer and commercial), pre-action protocols, court-based litigation and judgement obtainment, enforcement via warrants of execution and charging orders, face-to-face field visits for financial assessments, customer trace investigation, and shared equity loan administration covering re-mortgaging, subletting, partial redemption, additional borrowing and home improvement approvals. Delivery is supported by what the firm describes as market-leading in-house technology, a three lines of defence risk model and an externally benchmarked quality assurance framework. There is no disclosed evidence of AI/ML, proprietary models, or research output; operations are human-led across contact centre, field and legal workstreams.

Ascent generates revenue primarily through transaction-based commissions: 10–15% (plus VAT) on successfully recovered consumer debt, 10–12% on successful commercial collections with 5% on unsuccessful files, fixed hourly rates of £95 for certain instruction types, and litigation hourly rates ranging from £140 (paralegal) to £260 (partner/director). Additional managed-service revenue is earned from equity loan administration for house builders. Headcount stood at 150+ (up from 128 in April 2019), serving over 100,000 customers and administering over £6bn of assets, with reported revenue of £9.7m in 2018/19 projected to exceed £10m in 2019/20.

Name

cadac group

Legal name

Ascent Performance Group Ltd

Website

https://ascent.co.uk

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Ascent Performance Group is a UK-regulated specialist debt recovery law firm serving leading banks, major corporates, house builders and housing associations with collections, litigation, enforcement, field services and shared equity loan administration across England, Wales and Scotland.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Debt Recovery Services

NAICS

Collection Agencies (56144), Collection Agencies (561440)

SIC

Services-Consumer Credit Reporting, Collection Agencies (7320), Mortgage Bankers & Loan Correspondents (6162)

akta.pro primary industry

Third-Party Collection Agencies (Consumer) (FSAKAJAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Legal Collections Support (Pre-Lit, Litigation Admin, Judgment Recovery) (BPAAAEAH), Early-Stage / Soft Collections (Pre-Delinquency, Reminders) (BPAAAEAC), Debt Recovery & Asset Recovery (Repossession Coordination, Collateral Recovery) (BPAAAEAE)

Keywords

• Debt recovery services
• Arrears management
• Commercial debt collection
• Loan servicing
• Litigation services

Headquarters

HQ city

Manchester

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Revenue model

1. Debt Collection Commission (Consumer): Ascent charges a 10-15% commission (plus VAT at 20%) on successfully recovered consumer debt. No charge for unsuccessful consumer debt recovery, though legal disbursements may still be applicable.
2. Commercial Debt Collection Commission: For commercial debt collection, Ascent charges 10-12% commission on successfully collected debts and 5% on unsuccessful collections. Legal letters are charged at £5-£50 per letter. Fixed hourly rates of £95 per hour are available upon request.
3. Equity Loan Servicing: Ascent services shared equity loans for house builders and private equity investors, offering after-sale services including payment reminders, collection and remittance of payments, and late-stage collection and recovery activity.
4. Litigation Services: Legal services including court proceedings, judgment obtainment, and enforcement actions, with hourly rates ranging from £140 (paralegal) to £260 (partner/director) plus VAT.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Ascent Performance Group is a UK-based specialist debt recovery law firm providing outsourced arrears management, debt collection, litigation, enforcement, field visits, trace investigation, and shared equity loan administration services to financial institutions, corporates, house builders, and commercial clients. The firm operates across England, Wales, and Scotland as a wholly owned subsidiary of Lantern Group Holdings Limited, regulated by both the FCA and SRA.

Product overview

Ascent Performance Group operates as a specialist debt recovery law firm offering a unified suite of financial services. The core product portfolio includes Collections & Recoveries (telephone and letter-based debt collection), Litigation (court-based recovery), Enforcement (warrants, charging orders), Field Services (physical customer visits), Trace Investigation Services, Loan Servicing (shared equity loan administration), Commercial Debt Collection, and Mortgage Services. These services are delivered across all UK jurisdictions and serve a client base of major financial institutions, with operations supported by market-leading in-house technology.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Collections & Recoveries Telephone and letter-based debt collection services for consumer and commercial debts across UK jurisdictions, including pre-action protocols and ongoing customer communications.
• Litigation Legal proceedings and court-based debt recovery including judgement obtainment and enforcement actions across all UK jurisdictions.
• Enforcement Court enforcement services including warrants of execution, charging orders, attachment of earnings, and high court enforcement.
• Field Services Physical visits to customer properties to conduct financial assessments and reconnect customers with lenders, including representative-led interviews.
• Trace Investigation Services Locating customers who have lost touch with their creditors using UK search services.
• Loan Servicing Servicing of shared equity loans for house builders and private equity investors, including payment reminders, collection, and after-sale services for various transaction types.
• Commercial Debt Collection Collection of current and overdue invoices for businesses of all sizes, from pre-legal collections to escalation options including field services and litigation.
• Mortgage Services (Shared Equity) After-sale services for shared equity loan customers including re-mortgaging, subletting, partial redemption, additional borrowing, home improvements, and full repayment processing.

Quantifiable outcome

• 8.4 out of 10 Trustpilot rating
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Lantern Group Holdings LimitedcoreOthersAscent Performance Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lantern Group Holdings Limited, registered in England & Wales. Lantern Group provides corporate umbrella and shared services including HR, IT, and legal counsel support.
• Irwin Mitchell LLPcoreOthersAscent shares information with Irwin Mitchell LLP for marketing purposes. Irwin Mitchell is part of the same corporate group, providing additional legal services and expertise. Ascent's General Counsel team and compliance functions are supported by Irwin Mitchell Group.
• Credit Services Association (CSA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAscent is a member of the Credit Services Association, the only National Association in the UK for companies active in debt recovery, tracing and allied professional services. Membership requires conducting business in line with CSA's code of conduct.
• Finance and Leasing Association (FLA)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAscent is referenced as a third-party provider in FLA's Best Practice guidance on Managing Third Party Risk, indicating alignment with FLA member standards.
• Lending Standards BoardcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAscent is accredited by the Lending Standards Board, which externally recognises their quality checking as market leading. They are the only business in their markets with this accreditation.
• LPC LawminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerThird-party organisation with whom customer data may be shared for communication and legal support purposes.
• Citizens Advice BureauxminorOthersRecommended independent advice organisation for customers seeking free debt advice.
• National DebtlineminorOthersRecommended independent advice organisation providing advice to people with debt in England, Scotland & Wales.
• StepChangeminorOthersRecommended free, confidential debt advice provider for customers needing independent assistance.
• PayPlanminorOthersRecommended free debt advice provider for customers needing independent assistance with debt management.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Marston Holdings: Marston Holdings is one of the UK's largest enforcement, debt-recovery and integrated receivable-management groups. It is the broadest incumbent competitor to Ascent, with overlapping capabilities across collections, trace, and court enforcement, plus greater scale and a public-company discipline.
• Lowell Group: Lowell is a major UK and European credit-management services group that purchases and collects consumer debt on its own balance sheet and also provides third-party recovery services. It is comparable to Ascent in core consumer collections but operates at much greater scale and with a purchased-debt model Ascent does not pursue.
• Cabot Credit Management: Cabot is a large UK debt purchaser and third-party collection operator with a similar bank/financial-institution client base to Ascent. The model differs (significant purchased-debt book), yet the B2B debt-recovery service line, regulatory positioning, and target creditors overlap directly with Ascent's offerings.
• PRA Group: PRA Group is a US-listed global debt purchaser and collector with significant UK operations, competing for the same bank mandates and overlapping on consumer credit recovery. Its purchased-debt model differentiates it from Ascent's pure third-party-recovery focus, but the operational and regulatory profile is highly comparable.

Direct peers

• Bristow & Sutor: Bristow & Sutor is a UK specialist enforcement and recoveries firm operating in the same regulatory and court-enforcement space as Ascent, including high-court enforcement. It is a direct peer for Ascent's Litigation and Enforcement product lines and the field-representative operating model.
• BW Legal: BW Legal is a UK law-firm-led consumer debt-recovery practice with a similar SRA-regulated profile to Ascent. It competes directly for the same bank and consumer-credit mandates and overlaps on litigation-driven recovery.
• 1st Credit (Link Financial Group): Link Financial / 1st Credit is a European receivables-management group with significant UK third-party collections operations. Comparable to Ascent in targeting consumer-credit portfolios on behalf of banks, with broader European reach but overlapping core UK service lines.

Emerging players

• TDX Group (Equifax): TDX Group provides debt-marketplace, tracing and data services to UK lenders, sitting between Ascent and its bank clients in the recovery workflow. It is a partial-overlap competitor and ecosystem partner, comparable on the data-and-trace side of Ascent's value chain.
• Sheridan Capital Management: Sheridan Capital is a US-based distressed-debt and receivables-management firm with UK collection operations, providing third-party and purchased-debt services. It is comparable to Ascent on the consumer credit recovery workflow but operates at a different geographic and portfolio-mix profile.

Regional players

• Hoist Finance: Hoist Finance is a European debt-purchaser and servicer with UK operations, providing both purchased-debt and third-party collection services. It is comparable to Ascent on the consumer credit recovery offering, though its primary competitive footprint sits in continental Europe.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/_MyAscent
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ascent_2

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about cadac group