After a recall and a recovery, Collection House's Aveling eyes retiring
The Age
Wednesday February 3, 2010
DEBT collection companies sometimes haven't treated investors well.Look at Credit Corp where the scrip collapsed more than 90 per cent a couple of years ago.Collection House €” which largely makes its money out of buying problem credit card and personal loan debt for, say, 15 in the dollar and keeping whatever it can collect €” was also put through the wringer.Tony Aveling, the managing director of Collection House, thinks there's nothing wrong with the sector, but some didn't get things right. "If you've got the right quality management and you've got the right management information, then you can make good money in this business," he says.Aveling came to the chief's seat via an unusual route. After "100 years at Westpac" as he puts it, including a stint running the bank's finance arm AGC, he joined the Collection House board where he remained for five years and then resigned to enjoy retirement. Or so he thought.But in February, 2006, the company's scrip was savaged by 32 per cent in one day after an earnings shock; in November, Aveling came out of retirement to run the show."I guess they knew me and trusted me, and they asked me whether I'd come back to get the company back on track again," he says.Judging from a recent earnings update, it appears that he has indeed turned the ship around. Underlying pre-tax earnings for the December half were forecast at $6.7 million to $6.9 million €” compared with the $1.5 million, $5.1 million and $5.2 million for the three first halves since he was appointed.Interim dividend will be increased and Aveling talked about "further sustained growth". Yesterday he added: "I think we're out of the recovery ward entirely now with this latest result. We're obviously travelling well."He sounds very bullish indeed, which, he says, is unusual for him."People always talked about me being so boring and cautious and I think that's because I've seen too many people over-promise and under-deliver. I'd much rather the other way around."Aveling, 66, says his job is largely done. "I was never in it for 'this is my career and I want to make some money out of it', it was just a challenge. But it was only for a limited amount of time."Does that mean he won't be at the helm much longer? "We'll make an announcement at the appropriate time. I was very good at being retired, so, in due course, I will go back to doing what I was best at!"Shareholders may lament his departure but Aveling says he would "obviously always do the right thing by the company to make sure that we had good succession planning in place".
© 2010 The Age
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