LAS VEGAS — Dealers, vendors and auto professionals are gathering today at the Las Vegas Hilton for the kick off of the 11th annual National Alliance of Buy-Here, Pay-Here Dealers conference.

This year's event is titled "New BHPH Profit Opportunities in the Current Environment."

And as with year's past, Ken Shilson, founder of the NABD, will share annual financial benchmarks from top operators throughout the nation.

Basically, the NABD, with the help of Shilson, Golberg & Cheung, CPA firm, compiles and reports BHPH financial benchmarks from a database of more than 500 operators throughout the nation.

These financial benchmarks are a composite of the "best performing" operators and are not an average of the entire database, officials noted. Since 2006, the NABD benchmarks also include operating information on sales, collections, recoveries and inventory management, which were developed and supplied by NCM Twenty Groups, based upon a composite of all their BHPH twenty group members.

The report also includes portfolio performance metrics, which are compiled electronically by Subprime Analytics, who to date, has analyzed more than $5 billion (or more than 600,000 individual accounts) of subprime, PH installment loans to identify loss rates, patterns and trends.

"In the aggregate, these statistics provide a comprehensive look at the financial and operating performance of the BHPH industry for the last three years and some interesting trend information for earlier periods," Shilson pointed out.

He went on to say that at this year's event, "I will discuss these benchmarks and industry trends to help operators identify future opportunities."

As many know, the auto industry as a whole had a very difficult 2008, he stressed.

"A credit crisis, volatile gas prices, both inflation and deflation, and other economic factors combined to create some of the unprecedented economic challenges for both new- and used-car dealers," Shilson said.

"While franchise sales and profits declined, the benchmarks show that (at least among the better operators) BHPH profits did not experience the same fate," he concluded.

For a complete NABD agenda, visit www.bhphinfo.com.