Asset Acceptance to Acquire Medical Debt Purchaser PARC

Asset Acceptance Capital Corp. (Nasdaq: AACC), a leading purchaser and collector of charged-off consumer debt, announced late Friday that it has agreed to acquire medical debt purchaser Premium Asset Recovery Corporation (PARC) for $16.5 million.

Asset Acceptance, based in Warren, MI, said in a release Friday that they were looking to become a leader in the healthcare debt purchasing sector. “By combining Asset’s years of broad-based purchasing expertise and robust capital structure with PARC’s team of proven medical debt specialists, we believe this acquisition will allow us to further establish our presence in a rapidly growing niche industry where Asset stands to become a market leader,” said Brad Bradley, CEO of Asset Acceptance.

Deerfield Beach, FL-based PARC is identified in the release as a “recognized leader in the charged-off consumer medical debt purchasing industry.” The company has purchased more than $1.3 billion in face value debt since 1997, with around $1 billion being charged-off medical debt.

Asset Acceptance CFO, Mark Redman, commented, “As a pioneer in the purchase of non-traditional asset classes, we view this acquisition as a natural progression for Asset Acceptance, in accordance with our stated objective of measured, profitable growth. With a strong balance sheet, no debt and more than $50 million in cash as of December 31, 2005, we took full advantage of the liquidity available to us to add additional expertise and continue PARC’s track record of growth.”

Both PARC and Asset Acceptance acknowledged a cultural fit to the acquisition as well. Chris Conway, President of PARC said, “As a member of the Asset family, we now have the financial resources to be increasingly opportunistic in the purchase of charged-off medical receivables. The team at PARC has long respected Asset as an experienced industry leader that, while significantly larger than us, shares many of the same cultural attributes. We look forward to being a part of Asset’s long term growth strategy.”

Asset Acceptance said it will address the PARC acquisition on its first quarter earnings call scheduled for 10:00 a.m., Thursday, May 4, 2006.

Bethesda, MD-based advisory firm Kaulkin Ginsberg Company advised PARC in this transaction.