ICON Group International Ltd. Releases Financial And Labor Productivity Benchmarks On American General Finance Corporation

Market Wire, 20050229

ICON Group International Ltd., today released two economic analyses on labor productivity and financial benchmarks for American General Finance Corp.

The methodologist for this unique study is Philip Parker, Eli Lilly Chair Professor of Innovation, Business and Society at INSEAD (Fontainebleau, France and Singapore). According to Professor Parker, the uniqueness of these forecasts is that they involve comparisons across borders within the same competitive sector. He explains, "Our studies are strategic. This report was created for people who need to know how American General Finance Corporation's managerial style differs from firms competing in the sector at the global level."

The report has benchmarked American General Finance Corporation against competing firms in the Personal Credit Institutions industry worldwide. The results are two specialized reports: (1) global financial benchmarks using common-size statement ratios (vertical analysis), and (2) labor productivity and utilization measures collected across borders.

Financial Gap Analysis

How does American General Finance Corporation's balance sheet structure differ from global benchmarks? Does American General Finance Corporation hold more cash and short-term assets, or does it concentrate its assets in physical plant and equipment? Does it have a higher percent of payables compared to the benchmarks? Does it hold a higher concentration of long-term debt? Does American General Finance Corporation have a relatively higher cost of goods sold, operating costs, income taxes, or profit margins compared to global benchmarks? Intended for consultants and other strategic planners, this study goes beyond traditional gap analyses by considering firms competing in the same economic sector based on a sample drawn from numerous countries and gives dozens of statistical benchmarks, and some 30 graphs summarizing a statistical gap analysis.

Labor Gap Analysis

Are workers at American General Finance Corporation productive? There is no absolute answer to this economic question. The second forward-looking study considers how labor deployment and productivity indicators for American General Finance Corporation differ from the global benchmarks. It looks at the amount of labor required to operate American General Finance Corporation and the resulting return on human investment. What is the ratio of short-term and long-term assets to employee? What are comparative capital-labor ratios? What are the average sales and net profits per employee in American General Finance Corporation compared to benchmarks from the same economic sector.

Reports on 30 companies in the Personal Credit Institutions industry are available including:

Acom Company Ltd, Aeon Credit Service Co., Ltd., Aiful Corporation, American Express Company, Americredit Corp., Aplus Co., Ltd., Aristar, Inc., Capital One Financial Corporation, Cattles p.l.c., Central Finance Co., Ltd., Compucredit Corporation, Credit Saison Company Limited, Firstplus Financial Group, Hitachi Capital Corporation, Household International Inc., JACCS Co., Ltd., Metris Co Inc, MFN Financial Corp, Mycal Card Inc., Sanyo Shinpan Finance Co., Ltd., Takefuji Corp., Union Acceptance Corp., WFS Financial Inc., and World Acceptance Corp.

"We are intrigued by the wide variations in basic financial and productivity measures between American General Finance Corporation and other Personal Credit Institutions companies, notes Professor Parker. "The Earnings Before Interest And Taxes (EBIT), for example, varied from 9.32 to 62.41. We see this type of variation in the hundreds of ratios that we estimate."

ICON Methodology Labor Gap Analysis

Most vertical analyses merely focus on benchmarking against domestic ratios, often published by government agencies or commercial sources. In contrast, the report calculates thousands of industry norms by looking at firms at the global level, pooling statistics on tens of thousands of companies across over 40 countries, and applying a seven-stage methodology: (1) identification of industry classifications, (2) firm-level data collection and aggregation, (3) standardization of raw statistics, (4) filtering outliers, (5) calculation of global norms, (6) projection of deviations and gaps, and (7) projection of ranks and percentiles. For each part of the financial statement, the larger structural differences and gaps between American General Finance Corporation and the global benchmarks are provided with summary tables of ranks and percentiles.

Previously available only through booksellers such as Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, and Hoovers, two studies are now available direct from the publisher at a 50% discount off the cover price. This special offer includes Labor Productivity, Utilization and Global Benchmarks and Vertical Analysis and International Financial Benchmarks at US$ 199.90 ($99.95 each). E-mail iconsubs@san.rr.com for more information.

About ICON Group Ltd.

ICON Group Ltd. assists managers with global benchmarking, gap analysis, and productivity studies. Clients can create their own benchmarks by choosing their competitors from among over 20,000 companies.