Heritage Global Inc. (NASDAQ:HGBL) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call November 9, 2023 5:00 PM ET

Company Participants

John Nesbett - Investor Relations

Ross Dove - Chief Executive Officer

Brian Cobb - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Mark Argento - Lake Street Capital Markets

George Sutton - Craig-Hallum Capital Group

Michael Diana - Maxim Group

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, greetings, and welcome to the Heritage Global Inc. Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, John Nesbett, with IMS Investor Relations.

John Nesbett

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that this conference call contains forward-looking statements based on our current expectations and projections about future events and are subject to change based on various important factors. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as the date of this call. For more details on factors that could affect these expectations, please see our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Heritage Global's Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Ross Dove. Ross?

Ross Dove

Thank you, John, and thank everyone for attending and listening. Before Brian gives you an overview of what we feel was an extremely good quarter, I wanted to take a few moments upfront to walk everyone through our noncash $900,000 loan loss reserve, the reasons why we took it and how we feel about it. So our largest borrower came to us and said that they would like to extend the term of their loan that they believe they'll definitely be able to pay off. However, the collection curves have slowed, and they've asked for an extension. The first thing I thought about them asking for an extension, is thank God, I'm only 71 years old. So I've got plenty of time to extend it. So we feel comfortable that it's going to work, but we took the $900,000 charge because the buyer is asking for an extension.

So over time, we'll have to figure out whether or not that charge or that noncash reserve will stay on the books. For now, we believe it was prudent and the safest thing to do. So after I thought about it for a long time, I started thinking about a story from very early in my career that my grandfather of our founder told me. He said to me, kiid, never worry too much about the money that people owe you. Worry far more about the people you owe money to. So the good news there is our loan book has grown to $35 million plus while our bank debt is only $7 million. So with that perspective in mind, I feel very comfortable about our future here. So everybody kind of looking at the market right now, and I'll talk about it later on after Brian speaks, says, it looks like there's rocky roads coming ahead.