Pioneer Credit beats prospectus forecast
Impaired debt buyer Pioneer Credit has released its first financial report since listing on the Australian Securities Exchange in May, highlighting a substantial increase in its investment in debt ledgers in the year to June.Pioneer's management is keen to grow the business. The company's initial public offering raised more than A$40 million, part of which was earmarked for an expansion of its debt purchasing program.Pioneer's business is acquiring and servicing unsecured retail debt portfolios at a discount to their face value. Generally, it purchases debt that is more than 180 days overdue. Ninety per cent of its purchases are credit card and personal loan debt, and purchases are predominantly tier one debt (which means the customer was not credit impaired when the credit was originated).The company has $596.7 million of purchased debt on its books at a cost of $84.7 million. The average account balance is a little over $10,000.Net profit for the year to June was $1 million. After adjusting for one-off costs associated with the IPO, operating profit was $4.6 million, which was a little ahead of the prospectus forecast of $4.5 million.Revenue rose 54.5 per cent from $16.7 million in 2012/13 to $25.8 million in the year to June. The company said the growth was achieved on the back of gains in debtor payments.The company said the outlook for the current financial year was positive, with all of its planned debt purchases already contracted. It highlighted a good history of renewals with originators, with five current agreements being extensions or renewals of existing agreements.Portfolio investment in 2014/15 is forecast to be $37.9 million, compared with $31.6 million in the year to June and $26.6 million in 2012/13.The company has forecast a net profit of $6.6 million for 2014/15.