ECPG
#Afternoon.
Hi, <UNK>.
I'll just say that the CFPB has a greater interest in this part of the market, and that's probably all I can say.
$35 million wouldn't negatively impact our covenants, nor would it materially impact our liquidity and change our plans for capital deployment in 2015.
We could, but we wouldn't need to tap into the accordion for this or to execute our plans for 2015.
There's nothing I'm going ---+ I can't touch that question.
Sorry.
Now, I would have given a shorter answer and just said that we only have 45 to 50 people collecting right now.
So, that operation is still evolving as we continue to learn the UK market and continue to get comfortable with both the regulatory environment there and how you collect, and then the behavioral environment, which is what the folks in India also have to learn.
So, that continues to get better and better for us, and over time we will put more and more people into India.
But, I don't think it's a real meaningful number today, and nothing we ---+ nothing I don't think you should worry about.
Sorry, we put our decks to the side here for a moment.
Should be---+.
---+Yes, the overall cost to collect was 39.8%.
That what you're looking for, cost in the quarter.
For the fourth quarter, correct.
Oh, last year.
Last year was fourth ---+ well, fourth quarter last year ---+ let me put it this way, full year it ended about 39% last year.
It actually rose during the course of the year specifically in the US because we did some acquisitions like, for example, Atlantic Credit came on at the tail end of the third quarter into the fourth quarter, and it takes us a while to work down the redundancy and operations at Atlantic, and also in the other parts of our domestic operations.
And for 2013 in Q4, it was 42.1%.
Thanks.
So, I think nothing has changed from the last time we've chatted, which is we see the higher returns in Latin America, and we are starting to increase our deployment there as we begin to find interesting opportunities and get comfortable with the performance of those opportunities.
From there, I'd probably move over to the UK that has probably the next best set of returns, followed very closely by Spain, and then by the US.
Yes.
So, that's <UNK>'s ---+ one of <UNK>'s major responsibilities, is how do we continue to expand in Europe or in Latin America, and we're going to be agnostic to where we go first, but we will be very much in tune where the best returns are.
We think that some of those best returns may very well be in Latin America before other parts of Europe, but again it's always a question of who's selling and when, and then who's also showing up at the table to buy.
So, we're looking at different things in Europe.
We would buy them through Cabot in probably the ---+ probably the way we'd do it is buy it through Cabot, and then we're looking at different things in Latin America.
And I've said this several times, too.
We have, every quarter, three to five deals we're working on at all times.
And we haven't done anything over the last two quarters.
We've been executing against our plans to ensure that everything has been ---+ that we've bought has been assimilated, and it has.
But also, at certain points, we just don't like price, and then we're not going to buy for the sake of buying.
Yes.
Certainly in the UK, it's taken a step up.
There are three competitors that I think one is already sold, and the other two are in the process of being sold.
So, you're beginning to see the same consolidation in the UK that you saw in the US, so that's beginning to happen.
And pricing has risen, which we expected that it would, as you would start to begin to see some consolidation in the country.
Well, in the UK, Cabot does third-party collections.
They have that as part of their operations.
In Refinancia, which is in Colombia and Peru, they have a debt collection company that's part of their company.
And we have said that we like debt collections, and we haven't found the right company to step ---+ to work a deal with at the moment.
But, we do like debt collections as an ongoing business, and as a nice business expansion or adjunct to what we currently do.
Not at this time.
I think we're saving that for Investor Day.
We've got some ---+ we're early stages in some of these countries, and if they work out right, then I want to get a little bit of a first mover advantage.
But, we'll talk more about it we think on Investor Day in June.
So, some of the increased scrutiny from the regulatory side we mapped out early on.
And we said in the US, that's going to happen, as well as we saw supply constraints, and we saw pricing increasing.
So, we tried to, as I said, move with the purchase of Cabot, with Marlin, with Grove and Refinancia, and then other things we're looking in Mexico to augment the US, so we're not US dependent for our long-term growth rate.
So, that's how we take a ---+ that's the holistic approach.
Anything else other than that, I really can't make any comments about.
But, we have a holistic approach here to continuing to grow.
I'm going to just come back to the standard line.
I just don't think we have the ability to get into detail about that at this time.
When everything is ---+ dust settles, we're happy to talk about it in greater detail, but not now, sorry.
Bye.
Well, thank you all.
We think we had a good quarter.
And as I said to the Board, I think our expansion strategy has transformed our business.
Our diversification makes us a flexible debt buyer to deploy capital in different asset classes and geographies to maximize our expected returns.
And I like what we're doing on our operational improvements to improve liquidation and also address costs, and then reinvest that cost savings back into future MPV actions that will drive more value to the Company.
So, thank you all for attending, and we'll speak to you all soon.
