ARM Industry to Get Another Publicly Traded Company

The accounts receivable management industry will see another one of its major players traded on a U.S. stock exchange as early as next week when student loan and healthcare collector Performant Financial Corp. begins trading.

Performant, formerly known as Diversified Collection Services, said in an SEC filing Monday that it will be offering 11.5 million shares in an IPO expected to price between $12 and $14 per share. The company will trade on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker symbol PFMT.

The Livermore, Calif.-based company, which is backed by private equity firm Parthenon Capital Partners, reported net income of $2.5 million on revenue of $45.9 million for the quarter ended March 31, according to the filing. For the full year 2011, Performant had revenues of $163 million.

Performant noted its strong position in the education and healthcare ARM space, holding up as examples its long-running Dept. of Education debt collection contract and its position as one of four prime Medicare Recovery Audit Contractors for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Various IPO schedules, including one on NASDAQ’s web site, expect the company’s shares to begin trading late next week.

Performant would be one of a handful of publicly traded ARM companies. And it would be perhaps the only company traded on a major U.S. exchange that derives the majority of its revenue from contract debt collection services. The company said counted 1,280 employees at the end of 2011 at offices in California, Florida, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas.