Business finance company Earlypay reported yesterday that it is taking longer than expected to recover its funds from a large, failed debtor, building materials company RevRoof Pty Ltd, and that it has increased its provision against the exposure. Earlypay had advanced A$29 million to RevRoof and a related entity, Painted Steel Technologies, when they appointed PKF Melbourne as voluntary administrator in December. Initially, Earlypay said it had a “strong security position” and expected that the outstanding exposure would be repaid in full. But in February Earlypay said it had revised its expectations and accepted it would not recover a significant portion of its exposure. It included a provision of $9.6 million in its December half results. But yesterday it increased the provision to $10.5 million. In its latest statement to the ASX, the company said: “Due to ongoing litigation and other contingencies the outcome of which is presently unknown, Earlypay is unable at this time to state with certainty the final amount of the RevRoof recovery. The receivership process has taken longer and been more complex than originally expected.” The RevRoof and other provisions, totalling $14.1 million, tipped the company into loss in the December half. The company has accepted that the exposure was “outsized” and in its statement yesterday said it had “learnt many valuable lessons from the RevRoof situation”.