Asta Funding, Inc. Announces Financial Results For First Quarter Fiscal 2011

• Net Income of $2.7 Million, or $0.18 Per Diluted Share
• Strong Balance Sheet, No Impairments, Strong Liquidity Position Continues
• $84 Million Cash & Cash Equivalents

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., Feb. 9, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Asta Funding, Inc. (Nasdaq:ASFI) (the "Company"), a consumer receivable asset management and liquidation company, today announced results for the first quarter of the 2011 fiscal year, the three-month period ended December 31, 2010.

For the three months ended December 31, 2010, the Company reported net income of $2,666,000, or $0.18 per diluted share, an increase over net income of $2,475,000, or $0.17 per diluted share for the comparable period of fiscal year 2010. Total revenue was $10,838,000 for the quarter ended December 31, 2010, as compared to $11,053,000 for the three-month period ended December 31, 2009. Finance income from fully amortized portfolios (zero basis revenue) was $8,793,000 for the three-month period ended December 31, 2010, an increase of $685,000 from the first quarter of fiscal year 2010 of $8,108,000.

General and administrative expenses were $5,481,000 for the three-month period ended December 31, 2010, including $1.0 million non cash charge for stock based compensation expense as compared to general and administrative expenses of $5,629,000 for the same period in the prior year, which included approximately $500,000 for non cash stock based compensation expense.

Net cash collections of consumer receivables acquired for liquidation for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 totaled $21,105,000, including $155,000 from collections represented by account sales. This compares to $29,430,000 of total net cash collections, including $2,597,000 from collections represented by account sales, for the same period a year ago. Net cash collections on the Great Seneca portfolio were $3,551,000 in the first quarter of fiscal year 2011 as compared to $4,910,000 in the first quarter of fiscal year 2010. The carrying value of the Great Seneca portfolio at December 31, 2010 was $87.7 million, as compared to $116.6 million at December 31, 2009. Investments  in new portfolios totaled $2,883,000 during the first quarter of fiscal year 2011, as compared to $2,300,000 in the first quarter of fiscal year 2010. The portfolios acquired during the first quarter of fiscal year 2011 include semi-performing litigation-related medical accounts receivable portfolios whereby the Company is assigned the revenue stream. As a portion of the accounts are performing, the cost of the portfolio is higher than the traditional charged off non-performing assets.

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