IDT Seeks Revenue in the Receivables Management Business

NJBIZ.com, a weekly business journal covering the entire state of New Jersey, has a piece running today about the ever-changing IDT Corp.

What once was an international discount telecommunications firm, became a purveyor of calling cards, and is now, additionally, about to make its opening foray into the debt collection business.

If you’re a NJBIZ.com subscriber, you can read the full story here.

For those not in the Garden State, a recap:

IDT hooked up with Atlanta-based First Financial Portfolio Management to purchase a chunk of credit card debt – a $121 million chunk.  The credit card debt matches nicely with the debt collection agency, Big Ten Capital Management, IDT purchased back in June.

Both companies will be run by IDT Carmel, a business unit spawned by IDT Capital, which is in charge of tapping fresh revenue streams for parent IDT Corp.

IDT Carmel has bought an estimated $296 million in receivables—debt since its June 2005 launch. Company officials say IDT Carmel’s collection operations are currently working to collect about $255 million.

Howard Jonas, IDT’s founder and chairman, is bullish on debt. He told a group of analysts last month, “If we could get a couple more of them [large commercial banks] to sell [debt] to us, then we could conceivably spin this off as a public entity. We can have a billion dollars worth of value if we choose to do that.”