Debt buyer Portfolio Recovery Associates (PRA) on Wednesday reported record net income, cash collections and revenue in the first quarter ended March 31.
Net income for the Norfolk, Va.-based firm grew to $23.1 million, up 56% from $14.8 million in the year-ago period. Cash collections totaled $166.7 million, up 40% from a year ago. Revenue reached $111.8 million, up 34% from a year ago.
Total revenue includes cash collections reduced by amounts applied to principal on the company's owned debt portfolios, plus fee income earned from its fee-for-service businesses. In the first quarter, the company applied 42.4% of cash collections to reduce the carrying value of its owned debt portfolios, down slightly from 43.0% in the first quarter of 2010.
"Portfolio Recovery Associates kicked off 2011 with record financial results, driven by significantly higher first-quarter cash collections on our portfolios of defaulted consumer debt," said Steven D. Fredrickson, chairman, president and CEO. "This performance, building on the company's strong results in 2010, in large part reflects the improvements we've continued to make in our collections operations over time. These long-term investments paid off particularly well in the first quarter, with all measurements of collector productivity up strongly from 2010."
Call center and other collections increased 18%, external legal collections increased 39%, internal legal collections grew 46% and purchased bankruptcy collections gained 76% when compared with the year-earlier period.
PRA purchased $1.49 billion of face-value debt during the quarter, spending $107.9 million. The acquisitions included 79 portfolios from nine different sellers.
