Back to press releasesNEWARK, N.J. — January 17, 2007— IDT Carmel, a subsidiary of IDT Capital, today announced the formation of a joint venture with First Financial Portfolio Management. IDT Carmel is a receivables portfolio management and collection company. IDT Capital is a subsidiary of IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT, IDT.C), a multinational corporation with operations in telecommunications and other industries.
“IDT is a nimble entrepreneurial and opportunity seeking company,” said Jim Courter, CEO of IDT. “In the recent past, we saw opportunity and success in the entertainment industry and the Russian broadband and wireless markets. We now see opportunity in the receivables portfolio management business. We’ve created IDT Carmel to explore this industry.”
The joint venture has agreed to purchase 12 monthly forward flow credit card debt portfolios from a major commercial bank beginning this month. The total investment will depend on the size of the portfolios provided by the selling bank.
Since its formation in mid 2005, IDT Carmel has purchased $296 million of face amount of receivables. IDT Carmel’s collection operations are currently collecting approximately $255 million in face amount of debt.
Yaacov Dior has been appointed CEO of IDT Carmel. Prior to joining IDT Carmel, Mr. Dior was the CEO of Israel Credit Cards (Visa-Cal) Ltd., Chairman of Diners Club Ltd. in Israel and a member of the Board of Directors of Visa International.
“We are very excited about this transaction,” said Mr. Dior. “We purchased our first debt portfolio in late 2005. Since that time, we’ve made other acquisitions and have now entered into a joint venture with a partner with extensive industry experience. This forward flow purchase represents the next step in Carmel’s growth.”
About IDT Corporation
IDT Corporation is an innovative and opportunity seeking multinational company with operations that span various industries. Through its Telecom subsidiary, IDT provides telecommunications services worldwide to the retail and wholesale markets. IDT’s Capital division incubates newer businesses, and the company’s Spectrum subsidiary holds its spectrum license assets. IDT Telecom provides retail and wholesale telecommunications services and products, including pre-paid and rechargeable calling cards, consumer local, long distance, and wireless phone services, and wholesale carrier services. Under the Net2Phone brand name, the company also provides a range of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) communications services. IDT Capital’s operations include an Energy Services Company (ESCO) in New York State, receivables portfolio management and collection, ethnic food distribution, brochure distribution, and other initiatives. IDT Corporation’s Class B Common Stock and Common Stock trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols IDT and IDT.C, respectively.
