Brooke Credit Announces Re-Branding As Aleritas Capital
Finance Company positions itself for $1 billion milestone in 2008
OVERLAND PARK, KS, January 3, 2008 – Brooke Credit Corporation (OTCBB: BRCR; BRCRW; BRCRU) today unveiled its new brand initiative and visual identity, along with the launch of the company’s new website www.aleritascapital.com. The launch of the new brand is effective immediately, and, while the company will continue to operate under the legal name Brooke Credit Corporation for a short period of time, all future business activity will refer to the company as Aleritas Capital. Brooke Credit plans to present for vote to its shareholders a change of its legal name and articles of incorporation at the upcoming shareholder meeting scheduled for sometime in early 2008. In addition to the announcement regarding re-branding initiatives, Brooke Credit also announces its goal of achieving $1 billion in loan portfolio balances during 2008.
Mick Lowry, Chief Executive Officer stated, “We believe that our target markets offer tremendous growth opportunities, as local businesses in the insurance and death care industries have been underserved by traditional lenders over the years. We are committed to loaning money to these underserved business owners, as evidenced by our bold objective of achieving a $1 billion portfolio during 2008. During 2007, management spent considerable time positioning the company for growth by evolving the company’s lending and risk management platforms, expanding its staff and recapitalizing the company through the merger with Oakmont Acquisition Corp. Re-branding and the corresponding launch of an aggressive marketing campaign reflect the next stage of positioning the company for growth in 2008 and beyond.”
Capitalizing on the company’s proven lending platform, the new brand better positions the company for growth within its target markets and offers a more transportable brand across lending segments. The name “Aleritas” was created borrowing from the Latin root alere, which means to support, strengthen, increase, promote and advance. The new brand reinforces the company’s promise to helping our customers realize their dreams of business ownership, by not only providing capital but also providing them with access to tools to help our customers advance their local businesses.
“The process of re-branding involved significant analysis on the part of the company’s management. The Brooke brand has served the finance company well over the years and carries with it a strong heritage associated with the distribution of insurance. Utilization of the Brooke brand made good business sense in the past, because most of Brooke Credit’s loan origination activities were to franchisees that also utilized the Brooke brand. However, in recent years Brooke Credit started to transition from being a franchise lender to becoming an industry lender. It has been successful in this regard, as a majority of Brooke Credit’s 2007 loan originations were to non-franchise business owners. In light of this transition, it makes good business sense today to re-brand the finance company under a more universal brand,” stated Lowry.
Our company’s philosophy is to provide its customers with the capital to fund their dreams of business ownership and the tools to build them. Consistent with this philosophy, Brooke Credit is pleased to announce the launch of LoanPlus, an assortment of tools available to our customers to help them advance their businesses. LoanPlus, which is a voluntary value-added service, provides our customers with access to top consulting, sales coaching and educational firms, at no additional cost to our customers. Furthermore, Brooke Credit has formed a Customer Advisory Committee composed of our customers and industry leaders, which will help expand the tools available under LoanPlus to better serve our customer’s evolving businesses, such as providing them with access to resources for marketing, human resources, and tax preparation, among others.
Lowry also noted, “Although business ownership can be rewarding, it can also be difficult and sometimes challenging. In addition to providing capital to our customers, Brooke Credit is committed to providing our customers with access to tools and services to better deal with the challenges of business ownership and to help them build their businesses. As a finance company, our long-term success will ultimately be determined by the success of our customers. Through LoanPlus, Brooke Credit is making an investment in the success of our customers, by paying for services and tools that they would otherwise have to pay for if they were not customers of Brooke Credit. This is not only good lending, but represents a true commitment on the part of Brooke Credit to our customers.”
About the Company… Brooke Credit is a specialty finance company that originates loans to insurance agencies and insurance-related businesses. Loans are mostly sold as individual loans to participating lenders or as pooled loans to investors through asset-backed securitizations.
This press release contains forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, and several factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ from those indicated in the forward-looking statements: the uncertainty that the Company will achieve its short-term and long-term profitability and growth goals, uncertainties associated with market acceptance of and demand for the Company's products and services, the impact of competitive products and pricing, the dependence on third-party suppliers and their pricing, its ability to meet product demand, the availability of funding sources, the exposure to market risks, uncertainties associated with the development of technology, changes in the law and in economic, political and regulatory environments, changes in management, the dependence on intellectual property rights, the effectiveness of internal controls, and risks and factors described from time to time in reports and registration statements filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. A more complete description of the Company’s business is provided in the Company’s reports and registration statements, which are available from the Company without charge or at www.sec.gov.
Contact Info:
Brooke Credit Corporation
Anita Larson, Chairman and Chief Operating Officer
913-661-0123
anita.larson@aleritascapital.com
The Equity Group, Inc
Adam Prior, Vice President
212-836-9606
aprior@equityny.com
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