LISTED debt collectors in recent years have had a rough time of it on the sharemarket and have been very much out of favour.
But in more recent times they have been coming good.
Credit Corp used to be a darling of some members of the small-cap community who became so mesmerised by the company's exceedingly fast growth until 2007 that they hung on to their stock and failed to sell before earnings fell in a big hole in 2008.
The share price was shredded.
Collection House was dealt with here last month, and since then Credit Corp has reported its result for the December half-year; earnings were up 11 per cent and dividend was up 50 per cent.
The man who has been picking up the pieces at Credit Corp is Thomas Beregi who has been in the chief executive's chair for almost two years to the day.
He reports that he's enjoying the job. "When I started, the company had a number of challenges and we set in place a plan and we seem to have gradually ticked off most of those things,'' he said.
''We had a high level of debt and that's now significantly reduced and people are saying we have too little debt now, which is an amazing thing to be hearing after all that the world has gone through.''
Mr Beregi has implemented more stringent controls and he now knows how the business is travelling on an hourly basis.
''Rather than waiting until the end of the month, we manage it on a daily basis to make sure that the end of the month result is as it ought to be.''
Earnings are improving. In the current half-year, earnings are forecast to grow anywhere between 8 per cent and 37 per cent, which would result in yearly growth between 10 and 23 per cent.
The cash flow position of the company is now also far superior to what it used to be. It has cut the amount of problem debt it buys from financiers and has made an intense effort - and succeeded - in collecting more money from old debt.
Will Mr Beregi be there in five or 10 years?
''I hope so. We do have big plans and that's not to say we're going to do something that's foolish or repeat the past. But we do have plans to be a much larger company than we are today.
''So I hope to be around to execute on all of those and see them to success.''
The company is valued at $129 million, or nine to 10 times forecast current year results.
