Q1 2004 Resource America Earnings Conference Call - Final.

Original Source: FD (FAIR DISCLOSURE) WIRE

OPERATOR: Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Q1 2004 Resource America earnings conference call. My name is David and I will be your coordinator for today. At this time all participants are in listen-only mode.

We will be conducting a question-and-answer session towards the end of this conference. If at any time during the call you require assistance, please key star zero and a coordinator will be happy to assist you. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes. I would like to turn the presentation over to your host for today's call, Mr. Edward Cohen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Go ahead, sir.

JON COHEN, PRESIDENT & COO, RESOURCE AMERICA, INC: hello, everyone. I'm here with Jonathan Cohen, our President and Chief Operating Officer and Steven Kessler, our Chief Financial Officer. I want to remind everyone that when using this conference call, the words believes, anticipates, expects and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are, of course, subject to certain risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements.

These risks and uncertainties are discussed in our most recent annual report on form 10K, particularly in item one of the form 10K report under the title, risk factors. I'd like to caution everyone not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. And finally, the company undertakes no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements. Our results for the first quarter ended December 31, 2003 were quite gratifying to us. We reported net income from continuing operations of $3.8 million or 21 cents per common share diluted for the first fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2003. This compares to only $1.8 million or 10 cents per common share, again, diluted for the first fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2002.

This was an increase of $2.0 million or in percentage amounts, an increase of 112% quarter to corresponding quarter. And we presently expect similar sharp increases to continue into the present quarter, now underway. I'd like to hit some of the highlights and one of the very satisfying aspects is that all divisions and all aspects of the company participated in this growth. One of the high marks of the year was not an income item or an expense item but the completion of early redemption of our original issuance in the amount of $115 million of 12% senior notes due in August 2004. $41 million were redeemed in this quarter and in January 2004 the company redeemed the remaining $13 million of these senior notes. So those notes with their interest rate of 12% are now completely gone.

On an affirmative note, the company increased its managed assets to $3 billion at December 31, 2003. That was up 16% in one quarter. At September 30, 2003 managed assets were only $2.6 billion. And at December 31, 2002, one year earlier, managed assets were only $1.6 billion, so in the one year managed assets increased a total of 88%. To give you an idea of how this was achieved. In energy, the company's energy division completed a record-breaking year of fund raising with the placement of some $75 million of partnership units. This enabled the company's energy division to drill and substantially complete 111 net wells during the first fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2003. Now, that compared to only 37 net wells during the first fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2002.