IMGCAP(1)]
Cameron Williams, chief operating officer at Asta Funding Inc., is leaving the company, according to the Englewood Cliffs, N.J.-based debt buyer.
Williams was appointed in January of 2008 to what was at that time a newly created position. He will leave the company following a transition period, the length of which was not specified in Asta Funding's filing Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Williams is under contract with the company until the end of the year.
"Given the broader market environment and the emerging opportunities in consumer receivables management, the needs of our company are evolving," Gary Stern, Asta Funding's CEO, said in the filing. "Bill has been a valued member of our executive team. We are grateful for his contributions and wish him well."
Company officials could not be reached for further comment. Asta Funding ranks as the No. 7 debt buyer in Collection & Credit Risk's 2009 industry rankings with nearly $115.3 million in revenue from purchased debt in 2008.
"We don't have any specific commentary from the company as to exactly why he's leaving, but I suspect it probably has to do with cost-saving initiatives at the company," says Sameer Gokhale, senior vice president of specialty finance equity research at New York-based Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.
"There's no specific reason to indicate that this was performance driven," Gokhale tells Collections & Credit Risk. "The company has had significant issues but that's related more to portfolios acquired in the past and the subsequent downturn in the economy."
In August, Asta Funding reported net income of $1.48 million for the fiscal third quarter ended June 30, a 39.3% decrease from $2.44 million for the same period a year earlier (CCR Newsline, 8/4). The third quarter marked a return to profitability for the company after posting net losses of $7.8 million and $5.2 million in the first and second quarters, respectively.
Company officials have not stated whether they will replace Williams, and Gokhale says he has reason to believe they will not in an effort to cut costs, preserve liquidity and maximize profitability.
"They've been in somewhat of a retrenchment mode and may eventually be thinking about growing. Even so, I doubt it will be very aggressive growth because the liquidity is going to be constrained and the company has to be careful about how it uses capital," Gokhale says.
"Given the financial performance of the company, the company probably decided that there wasn't a need for an additional rung of management," he says. "They are a small company. They really don't need to be that top heavy."
