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House proud directors decide to collect some of the profits

FOLLOWING sudden appreciation of Collection House scrip, two directors of the debt collection and debt buying group took the chance to lighten their load.
By · 9 Feb 2013
By ·
9 Feb 2013
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FOLLOWING sudden appreciation of Collection House scrip, two directors of the debt collection and debt buying group took the chance to lighten their load.

The group has historically been in the shadow of rival Credit Corp but in the past few weeks Collection House's shares have got a wriggle on big time, improving from $1 to as high as $1.50. One year ago they were 78¢.

Co-founder John Pearce sold 1.7 million shares at $1.30 and American resident Dennis Punches disposed of 4 million shares at the same price.

Perpetual bought those quantities and became a substantial shareholder with slightly more than 5 per cent of the capital.

Fuelling the re-rating of the stock was the December half performance where earnings jumped 27 per cent and chief executive Matthew Thomas forecast full year earnings of between $14.8 million to $15.4 million - about 20 per cent up.

Messrs Pearce and Punches kindly left something on the table for the buyer: the scrip was fetching $1.46 yesterday.

Elsewhere, GUD Holdings managing director Ian Campbell sold almost all his stake in the company ahead of his departure midyear. He sold to "rebalance" his share portfolio.

Campbell took the reins 14 years ago and fairly quickly presided over a huge re-rating of the group's shares, which went on to halve and double a few times. He sold at $8.19 a share, which compares with a share price of roughly $2.50 when he took over - appreciation of more than 8 per cent compound a year.

Another managing director, John Hughes, over at Thorn Group was a seller, as were two of his boardroom colleagues.

He sold 13 per cent of his holding and said the $1 million would be used to satisfy tax and other obligations and added he had no current intention to sell any more shares.

Bruce Ballantine Teele made rare appearances on the sellers' table.
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