Collection House Sees a Good First Half to 2008

Major Australian ARM firm Collection House Limited said Thursday it anticipates a pre-tax operating profit of U.S. $2.8 million to $3 million – which would mark an increase of 400 percent – for the first half of its fiscal year 2008, continuing a turnaround that began in the second half of 2007.

Brisbane, Australia-based Collection House uses a fiscal year that runs from July 1 to June 30. Managing Director and CEO Tony Aveling said bottom line net profit was likely to be between $7.9 million and $8.1 million after the inclusion of an exceptional profit of $5 million from the sale of non-core businesses during the period.

“However, the best measure of performance is at the pre-tax operating level and on that score profits almost doubled between the first and second halves of the 2007 financial year and were up at least another 60 percent in the six months to December 31, 2007,” said Aveling in a press release.

The collector and debt purchaser said that it is building on the momentum of the second half of its fiscal year 2007. In the first half of 2007, Collection House reported operating profits of $600,000. The second half proved much better with the firm reporting a profit of $2.7 million. For fiscal 2007, the company turned a $3.3 million profit on revenues of $120 million.

Aveling also commented in the press release that debt purchasing activity is likely to be the highest on record in 2008.