New OSI Portfolio Head Sees Big Growth Ahead

Last month, Outsourcing Solutions, Inc. (OSI) announced that it had hired Stacey Schacter as the new president of its Portfolio Services debt purchasing division. Now the company, and Schacter, are ramping up for significant growth.

But it almost never happened. Schacter, a long-time industry veteran, had decided to do what so many top executives in the debt buying space have done recently: start his own business.

“I had a name picked out and I had a plan to hire six or seven people. I was ready to go,” Schacter told insideARM.com. “But one of my colleagues suggested I call OSI.”

After that call and the subsequent conversations with the ARM industry’s second-largest company, Schacter became increasingly aware that OSI had big plans for its debt purchasing unit.

Even in the press release announcing Schacter’s appointment, OSI CEO Kevin Keleghan noted that Schacter was joining the firm “at a significant time of growth for the company.” Schacter says that Keleghan was probably alluding to the debt purchasing unit.

“Right now, we are already looking at several large deals,” said Schacter, who started at his new role at the beginning of July. “We have a lot of untapped resources [for debt purchasing] at OSI right now. We plan to buy significant amounts of debt in the coming months.”

OSI Portfolio Services, headquartered in Duluth, Ga., buys debt across most asset classes. Part of the attraction to OSI for Schacter was the diversity of portfolios the company deals with. “I can take a look at asset classes and a wider variety of product than I could before,” said Schacter, who had been with debt purchaser EMCC Inc. “I was very well supported financially at my old job but the resources here are vast.” For one, the portfolio unit can call upon the collection unit of OSI. Still, Schacter notes, his division uses other collection agencies to collect on accounts.

Schacter said that he will be applying the same philosophy at OSI that he used previously–buy portfolios and collect on the debt. He does not like “buy & flip” strategies that call for a short-term liquidation of a portfolio soon after purchase, and he prefers to acquire portfolios that already have some cash flow. “I never look at a portfolio with the intention to resell,” said Schacter.

As for prices in the debt purchasing sector, Schacter says that he is seeing them come down off of their recent highs. “Prices are dropping on scaled-back revenue expectations," he said. “Expectations are being trimmed due to the current pinch on consumers and the slight possibility of a coming recession.”