Accord Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2008 Earnings

About this update from Accord Financial Corp.

[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\nTORONTO, Feb. 24 /CNW/ - Accord Financial Corp. (TSX - ACD), a leading\nNorth American provider of factoring and other asset-based financial services\nto businesses today announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and\nyear ended December 31, 2008. The financial figures presented in this release\nare reported in Canadian dollars and have been prepared in accordance with\nCanadian generally accepted accounting principles.\n\n\n-------------------------------------------------------------------------\n SUMMARY OF FINANCIAL RESULTS\n ----------------------------\n\n Three Months Ended Year Ended\n December 31 December 31\n\n 2008 2007 2008 2007\n ---- ---- ---- ----\nFactoring\n volume (millions) $ 429 $ 376 $ 1,596 $ 1,497\n\nRevenue $ 6,753,267 $ 7,770,561 $28,059,765 $28,345,999\n\nNet earnings $ 461,810 $ 2,059,228 $ 5,041,161 $ 6,286,965\n\nEarnings per share\n Basic $ 0.05 $ 0.22 $ 0.53 $ 0.66\n Diluted $ 0.05 $ 0.22 $ 0.53 $ 0.66\nWeighted average\n number of shares\n Basic 9,453,548 9,471,727 9,490,837 9,463,231\n Diluted 9,469,603 9,574,470 9,530,932 9,575,387\n\n-------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\nNet earnings for 2008 declined by 20% to $5,041,000 compared to last\nyear's $6,287,000, while diluted earnings per share decreased to 53 cents\ncompared to 66 cents last year. The Company's return on average shareholders'\nequity was 11.7% in 2008 compared to 16.0% in 2007. Net earnings declined as a\nresult of a significantly higher provision for credit and loan losses,\nalthough higher G&A expense and lower revenue contributed somewhat to the\ndecline.\n\n\nFactoring volume in 2008 rose by 7% to a record $1,596 million compared\nto $1,497 million in 2007. Revenue declined by 1% to $28,060,000 in 2008\ncompared with $28,346,000 last year. Revenue decreased despite the rise in\nvolume as factoring commissions declined due to reduced factoring yields, in\npart as a result of lower interest rates.\n\n\nCommenting on 2008's results, Ken Hitzig, the Company's President, noted\nthat "2008 turned out to be a year of severe economic challenges and these\ncertainly had an impact on Accord. The Company's earnings for the first nine\nmonths of 2008 were actually ahead of the same period the previous year, but\nwe were unable to maintain our momentum and the quality o...

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