International Card Establishment Profitable in 2008
7:01a ET April 1, 2009 (Market Wire)
International Card Establishment, Inc. (I.C.E) (OTCBB: ICRD) today announced that it was profitable in 2008 in reporting its fourth quarter and year end financial results for the period ended December 31, 2008.

For the year ended December 31, 2008, I.C.E. had net income of $ 64,323 ($ 0.00 per share) on net revenue of $ 7,599,557, versus a loss of $(3,764,850) ($ 0.11 per share) on revenues of $ 9,222,659 for 2007. The 18 % decline in revenues, attributable to a difficult economic climate and merchant account attrition, was also caused in part by I.C.E. concentrating its resources on higher margin Gift and Loyalty business segments, whose revenues are lower than the traditional credit card processing business. The company is embarking on a number of new marketing and operating initiatives, to be announced shortly, that will focus the company on these higher margin business segments and provide merchants with a vast array of marketing and promotional tools.

For the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2008, I.C.E. reported revenues and net income of $ 1,857,364 and $32,044 respectively, versus a loss of $ (623,317) on revenues of $2,162,336 for the comparable year ago period.

I.C.E. reported net operating income of $ 133,646 versus a net operating loss of $ (3,764,850) in 2007. The company had positive EBITDAS (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, Amortization, and Share-based Compensation Expense) of $460,896 for the year ended December 31, 2008

Operating, general and administrative costs decreased by approximately $4,229,052 or 61% from $6,972,565 to $2,743,513 while incurring the startup expense of a new marketing and sales division with additional staff and office facilities. This reduction was mainly due to lower amortization expense (down $3.33 million) and depreciation in full of fixed assets as of the end of 2007. The amortization expense was reduced by adjustment of our portfolio to lower of cost to market at December, 31, 2007. An additional factor was the reduction of bad debt expense due to the tightening of credit policies.

"Having stripped down our cost structure radically, I.C.E. reported positive net income for 2008, despite a reduction in revenues stemming from a poor economy and a concentration on Gift and Loyalty, rather than the higher revenue, but lower margin credit card processing business," said William Lopshire, CEO, I.C.E.

"We have been working on a number of major strategic marketing and operational initiatives -- to be announced in the near future--which we believe have the possibility of significantly enhancing our revenues and profitability over the coming year and beyond."

About I.C.E. (http://www.cardnetone.com)

I.C.E. is a provider of diversified products and services to the electronic transaction processing industry. I.C.E. establishes merchant accounts for businesses that enable them to accept credit cards, debit cards and other forms of electronic payments; supplies point-of-sale systems; facilitates processing; and markets a proprietary Gift and Loyalty system that enables merchants to offer custom store-branded gift and loyalty cards and marketing and promotional tools.