TORONTO, May 2 /CNW/ - Accord Financial Corp. (TSX - ACD), a leading North American provider of asset-based financial services to businesses, including factoring, financing, credit investigation and guarantees, announces its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2007. The financial figures presented in this release are reported in Canadian dollars and have been prepared in accordance with Canadian generally accepted accounting principles.
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SUMMARY OF FINANCIAL RESULTS
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Three Months Ended March 31
2007 2006
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Factoring volume (millions) $ 366 $ 371
Revenue $ 6,616,480 $ 7,213,759
Net earnings $ 1,393,809 $ 1,691,215
Earnings per share
Basic $ 0.15 $ 0.17
Diluted $ 0.15 $ 0.17
Weighted average number of shares
Basic 9,441,583 9,930,806
Diluted 9,568,792 10,085,791
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Net earnings declined by 18% to $1,393,809 in the first quarter of 2007 compared to last year's record $1,691,215, largely due to lower revenue. Diluted earnings per share decreased by 12% to 15 cents in the first quarter compared to 17 cents last year. The percentage decrease in diluted earnings per share was lower than that of net earnings due to fewer shares outstanding.
Factoring volume declined slightly to $366 million in the quarter compared to last year's record $371 million. Revenue decreased by 8% to $6,616,480 compared to $7,213,759 last year largely as a result of lower yields and factoring volume.
Commenting on the first quarter's results, Ken Hitzig, the Company's President, noted that, "although not as strong as last year's record first quarter, the Company is pleased with the performance achieved in the first quarter of 2007. The Company ended the first quarter with gross factored receivables and loans of $89 million. Incoming deal flow picked up near the end of the quarter and the Company expects to benefit from this during the remainder of 2007."
The Company's Board of Directors today declared a regular dividend of $0.055 per share, payable June 1, 2007 to shareholders of record May 17, 2007.
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