After Collection House Limited (ASX: CLH) crashed back in February, the CEO's resignation (effective 30 June 2016) left the board hunting for a replacement. This morning, Collection House announced that they had hired experienced collections executive Anthony Rivas to the vacant role, commencing Wednesday 6 July 2016.
Mr Rivas has more than 25 years in the collections business and has worked in a variety of roles, including for Australian Receivables Limited (ARL), which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of global titan EGS. Reading between the lines, Mr Rivas looks to be something of a 'trouble-shooter' brought in to improve operations and profitability, as characterised by his relatively short tenures of ~2 years recently.
(Mr Rivas joined EGS in 2011 and improved the company's operations in Mexico before joining ARL in 2013 and becoming managing director in July 2015)
His salary at Collection House consists of $400,000 per annum base wage, with an additional 75% of this in short term incentives (split 60%-40% cash and shares). Long term incentives consist of 3 million performance rights depending on Mr Rivas' performance over the 3 years to 1 July 2019.
Growth of 5%p.a. in Earnings Per Share (EPS) will be rewarded with 1 million rights, while 7.5%+ will earn 2 million rights and 10%+ will receive all 3 million performance rights.
Plenty of trouble to shoot
Mr Rivas has his work cut out for him, with Collection House recently outfoxed by competitors like Credit Corp Group Limited (ASX: CCP), who were willing to pay higher prices for debt than Collection House. As a result, Credit Corp recently upgraded its forecasts and announced an 'improved growth outlook' for Financial Year 2017.
Part of Collection House's trouble is the fact that the collections business has a long 'tail', where debts purchased in one year contribute to earnings for several years ahead. As a result, Collection House may have left itself at a disadvantage by reducing its collections recently, even if this may have been a prudent decision on behalf of outgoing CEO Matt Thomas.
Either way, Collection House's new CEO is highly experienced and appears a solid appointee.
