Equity investment company J C Flowers has added to its Kent connections by snapping up a debt purchase business.

Cabot Credit Management, based in Kings Hill, West Malling, to being acquired by the business founded in 1998 by New York-based Christopher Flowers.

J C Flowers already holds a substantial stake in OneSavingsBank Plc, which was formed after the transformation of Chatham-based Kent Reliance Building Society into a hybrid bank and mutual provident organisation.

Cabot was formed by the merger in April 2011 of two businesses, Apex Credit Management and Cabot Financial.

The purchase was funded by AnaCap Financial Partners which already owned Apex Credit Management in Stratford-upon-Avon, and its co-investors Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners and Partners Group.

The fast-growing company is a market leading acquirer and manager of consumer debt, with more than £7.7 billion of assets under management covering more than 3.5 million customer accounts.

It employs 350 people at Kings Hill and featured in “The Sunday Times Top 100 Best Companies to Work For” this year.

Every November, Cabot staff man the phones for Comic Relief. It expects to grow its workforce by around 20 a year.

Mr Flowers said: “We are pleased to finalise our investment in Cabot, which represents an important addition to our portfolio of financial services investments.

"We look forward to working with the management team to continue executing the growth strategy of the business for the coming years.”

Neil Clyne, Cabot’s chief executive officer, added: “The Cabot Credit Management group has grown rapidly following the merger of Cabot Financial and Apex Credit Management and I’d like to take the opportunity to thank AnaCap for its support and the key role it has played in this.

“The purchase of the group by JC Flowers & Co., who has a great deal of experience in the debt purchase industry, represents a very exciting next step in the development of the group.”