Baycorp Advantage opted for a trade sale for the disposal of its debt collection business, with the subsidiary sold to a joint venture between Allco Equity Partners and Deutsche Bank Capital Partners.Baycorp said on Friday it agreed to sell Baycorp Advantage Collections Services for $97 million to Trans Tasman Collections, a consortium including AEP and DB Capital.The company said the sale price represented a premium of about $15 million to the book value of BCS. The Australian reported that DB Capital Partners already owns a smaller debt collection business, Portfolio Management Group, which used to be known as Sims Lockwood.Baycorp Advantage has is roots in the former bank-owned near cooperative, the Credit Reference Association of Australia, which corporatised and listed in 1999 under the name of Data Advantage. Data Advantage then merged with New Zealand-based credit reference bureau and debt collection agency Baycorp in early 2002.Many of the promised benefits from the Baycorp takeover failed to materialise, with the debt collection business overpaying for debt ledgers in 2003 and 2004. A fresh management team installed in 2004 decided last year to sell the debt collection business that operates in Australia and in New Zealand, but will retain the credit reference business in New Zealand. The decision to spin off the collections business is consistent with plans advanced by Allco Equity Partners in an unsuccessful takeover bid last year.The new owners of the collections business will retain the Baycorp name, leaving Baycorp Advantage to select a new name for the remaining business.The company will ask the Australian Stock Exchange for a waiver of rules requiring shareholders to endorse the sale of the collections business to Allco (which owns 17 per cent of Baycorp) on the grounds the sale follows an open tender.