Former Great American Executive Launches Asset Disposal Firm

By Nicholas Elliott

Thomas Pabst, formerly the chief operating officer at liquidation firm Great American Group, has formed a new firm that he expects to capitalize on the need of banks to offload distressed assets.

Hyperams LLC, based in Vernon Hills, Ill., will acquire inventory, machinery and equipment, commercial accounts receivables, real estate and loan portfolios. Pabst has an affiliation with Hyper Microsystems Inc., also based in Vernon Hills, a privately held company that resells new and refurbished consumer electronics and other technology equipment.

In an email, Pabst wrote that being able to work with a large partner like Hyper Microsystems will allow his new firm to take a long-term approach to disposing of excess inventory. "This ability to extract maximum value over time should result in being more competitive in the purchase of assets," he wrote.

However, he pinpoints the problems of financial institutions as presenting a particular opportunity at the moment for his new firm. "We feel this is a unique time in the market when financial institutions will begin to move certain loans off their books in a variety of ways," he wrote. "We can assist in any of those situations."

Banks are in better financial shape, on the whole, and so are more willing now to book losses on loans they sell. This week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apollo Management LP bought a $2.8 billion portfolio of commercial- property loans from Credit Suisse Group, in one of the largest such sales since the recession.

Hyperams has already bid on three liquidation transactions that included inventory and machinery and equipment, according to Pabst. It has also been seeking to acquire two notes backed by commercial real estate, he said.

The firm is using internal capital, lines of credit and private investors to fund its transactions and has no plans to raise a fund.

Before Great American, Pabst worked for the Pride Capital Group LLC and for Hilco Trading Co.