Westar Financial Reports $105 Million in 3Q01 Revenue, Up 300%
3 January 2001
Westar Financial Reports $105 Million in 3Q01 Revenue, Up 300%
TUMWATER, Wash.--Jan. 3, 2001--Westar Financial Services Incorporated (OTC:WEST), the leading automobile e-finance portal, today reported continued record growth.The company generated revenues of more than $105 million for its third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2000, an increase of 300% from $26 million in the year ago period, and 76% from $60 million in the prior quarter of this year. For the first nine months of fiscal 2001, revenues increased 140% to more than $202 million compared to $84 million in the like period a year ago. Westar has reported record revenues for each of its most recent four quarters.
"For the five years it took us to build and prove our business model, the most common comment we heard from others was, `That's not the way it's normally done.' We agree. Today, Westar is delivering on its promise to meld exciting new technologies with older concepts of high-touch service in order to deliver quality growth," said R. W. Christensen, Jr., President. "Westar is capitalizing on its recognition that `e-commerce' is a tool, rather than an end in itself. The business models and practices we've developed to serve the B2B2C marketplace have positioned Westar on the leading edge of the financial services industry of the future in terms of revenue growth, margin expansion and operating efficiency. In February, we will report full fiscal third quarter results, and expect the final quarterly results will be significantly improved and approaching breakeven. The widening margins and strengthening operating results are a direct result of the economies of scale we are beginning to generate in finance and operations."
"We expect Westar will have more opportunities presented to it in the coming year as large competitors continue to exit the automobile segment of consumer financial services. In particular, we expect more major institutions to look to outsourcing their auto finance operations, essentially similar to their earlier large-scale departures from personal loans, mortgages and credit cards. This will create additional possibilities for Westar in terms of revenues, market share and margins," he added.
WEST is the leading publicly traded automobile-oriented financial portal. Westar originates, decisions, commits to and fulfills consumer financings for itself or others, using sophisticated decision tools and high-speed communications to assure transparency to all parties to the transaction. Through DriveOff.com, recently acquired by MSN CarPoint, Westar completed the first entirely electronic Internet automobile purchase and lease transaction in October 1999. The company operates its Dealer Direct Retail Leasing program in 14 western states and is rapidly expanding its e-finance activities nationally through alliances with DriveOff.com, AmSouth Bancorporation, Mellon Bank and others.
Statement regarding "Forward-Looking Statements": Statements concerning future performance, developments or events, including projected profit and loss levels, expansion of operations, growth of loan originations, quality of the company's lease portfolio, the ability to place securitizations, success of the e-commerce model, trends in interest rates, various statements concerning expectations for growth or profits and any other guidance on future periods, constitute forward-looking statements which are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties which might cause actual results to differ materially from stated expectations.