Schacter Strikes Out on Own, Announces Major Portfolio Purchase

Debt buying veteran Stacey Schacter recently launched his own portfolio purchasing and consulting firm, and Thursday announced the company’s first major purchase: substantially all of the receivables of Friedman’s Jewelers and Crescent Jewelers.

The announcement comes after a busy year for Schacter, one which saw him change companies twice. In March of last year, Schacter resigned as the CEO of debt buyer EMCC, Inc., a company he had been with for 15 years. His idea at the time was to explore other business opportunities, including opening his own firm. In fact, he had a plan in place to do just that.

“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 last year. “But one of my colleagues suggested I call OSI.” ("New OSI Portfolio Head Sees Big Growth Ahead," Aug. 27, 2007)

Shortly thereafter, Schacter was named president of Outsourcing Solution, Inc.’s (OSI) debt purchasing division. He was excited to be a part of a major player — OSI was the second-largest accounts receivable management firm in the country — that was looking to grow its debt buying business.

But when industry leader NCO Group announced in December it was acquiring OSI, Schacter knew his stay at the collection giant might be short-lived. “There is a lot of synergy and very little redundancy in the deal,” said Schacter. “But the portfolio purchasing units did compete and NCO already had top management in their unit.”

Schacter left OSI in March of this year after the completion of the deal. He says that the departure was amicable. “I’ll be dealing with those guys in the future, of course,” he said. “Plus, I feel I fulfilled my purpose in coming on board.”

He then went back to his original plan from March of 2007: opening his own shop. “I’ve always worked for large debt buyers, but I’ve always wanted to start a company myself,” said Schacter.

The new firm is Briannaco, Inc., and it will be based in the Atlanta area. Briannaco announced Thursday that it had acquired “substantially all of the receivables of Friedman’s Jewelers and Crescent Jewelers.” The two jewelry stores, both part of the same parent company, are liquidating assets under a bankruptcy order. According to a court filing, Friedman’s counted $63 million in receivables that were approved for sale.

Schacter said that Briannaco had purchased – with partners – both the performing and charged-off accounts from the jewelers. The performing accounts, however, are the first priority.

“We are going to focus on performing paper moving forward,” said Schacter. He said that if the company buys charged-off accounts, they will be in early stages. The charged-off Friedman’s accounts will be outsourced for collection.

Although Schacter characterized the purchase as “significant” in size, he said that he is looking forward to building his new business and “getting into larger transactions.”

Briannaco will also offer portfolio appraisal and consulting services to other debt buyers.