EZPW - NASDAQ

Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to E

Thank you and good morning everyone. During our prepared remarks, we will be referring to slides, which are available for viewing or download from our website at investors.ezcorp.com. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that this conference call as well as the presentation slides contain certain forward-looking statements regarding the company's expected operating and financial performance for future periods. These statements are based on the company's current expectations. Actual results for future periods may differ materially from those expressed due to a number of risks or other factors that are discussed in our annual, quarterly, and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. And as noted in our presentation materials, and unless otherwise identified, results are presented on an adjusted basis to remove the effects of foreign currency fluctuations and other discrete items. Joining us on the call today are E

Thanks Jean and good morning everyone. Our team's consistent execution on our strategic plan has again yielded very strong operating and financial results for our stakeholders. As we conclude the current fiscal year and three-year strategic plan announced in November 2020, we will today begin with a review of our fourth quarter performance, and then we'll move to an overview of the strategic goals we set three years ago and the associated accomplishments that have been achieved in that time. At the end of Q4, pawn loans outstanding, the key driver of our business, hit a record $250 million, the highest level in E

Thanks, Lachie. Slide 12 details our consolidated financial results for the fourth quarter. PLO ended the period at $240.4 million, up 14% on a year-over-year basis, which is the highest in E

Thanks Tim. Slide 16 shows our three-year plan strategy pillars. We transitioned in fiscal year 2020 to a senior management team who are mostly promoted from within, and with many years of experience in the pawn business, and we performed a comprehensive strategic review of all areas of the company. We launched a new three-year plan, focused on significantly improving our culture and the bench strength of our store teams, enhancing our core pawn operating model with more robust lending and higher inventory turns, reduced costs and expanding customer base and store footprint, and an extreme focus on customer service and engagement. All of this to materially increase operational efficiency, bottom-line growth, and return on capital for all of our shareholders. On Slide 17, our commitment to our internal operating mantra of people, pawn, and passion has led to growing PLO and revenue to record levels, coupled with a sustainable improvement in ROEA. We introduced a cultural transformation in the US in financial year 2020 and Latin America in financial year 2022. The result of this work is demonstrated both in our significantly improved financial and operating results over the last three years as well as our most recent annual company-wide engagement survey, in which we scored 84 points, well above all global benchmarks. Tim will walk through the significant financial improvements we've seen over the last three years.

Thanks Lachie. We have seen a substantial improvement in our financial results over the last three years. This improvement starts with PLO, which you can see on Slide 18. PLO reached a low point in Q3 fiscal year 2020 due to the paydown during COVID, but since then has continued to increase significantly, reaching an all-time record this quarter. The macroeconomic environment remains attractive for pawn broking as customer demand continues to grow and internal initiatives that we have executed has driven PLO and PSC into more record territory. As you can see in the PLO competition chart, jewelry pawn demand has been growing at a faster pace than general merchandise, contributing to a higher average pawn loan size across all geographies, and we believe that there should be more growth going forward in this critical category. On Slide 19, you can see how improvements to the pawn operating model and team member incentive programs have driven stronger inventory turnover with low aged inventory. Similar to the PLO competition, we have seen an uptick in jewelry during FY 2023, and that tends to turn at a slower rate than general merchandise. Slide 20 shows a significant improvement to merchandise sales and sales gross profit, which were driven by enhanced operating model changes implemented during this period. The strategy focused on quicker inventory turns and lower aged with new incentive programs designed to drive execution. Merchandise margin in fiscal 2021 was unnaturally high due to the pandemic and has returned to our normal range of 35% to 38%. Merchandise sales profit growth has been outpacing the margin decrease. Slide 21 looks at the many metrics showing sustained growth in customer engagement. All of these have been critical in our sustained improvements in our operating and financial results. The E

Thanks Tim. We view our investments in Cash Converters International and SMG through Founders as an important strategic and geographic extension of our core pawn operation. Through Founders we have enhanced our exposure to the strategically important Caribbean and Central America regions as well as the Florida market. In CCV, listed on the stock exchange in Australia, increases our exposure in 14 countries, including Australia, New

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Brian McNamara with Canaccord Genuity. Your line is open.

Hey good morning guys. Congrats on the strong results. Thanks for taking the questions. First, a big value retailer this morning, that we all know, said -- it saw a sharp falloff in sales during the last two weeks of October, and are basically more cautious on the consumer than they were 90 days ago with consumers holding out for lower prices. My question as it relates to you, I'm curious what you're seeing in your stores today, particularly as it relates to new customers. Are you seeing new customers?

Good morning Brian and thanks for the question. Yes, we are seeing new customers. It's region dependent. And as you know, we've got two sides of our business. We've got lending on one side and we've got retail on the other. I think on the demand side, lending continues to be very strong and I think that's reflective of the economy we're in, the macro environment. And I think with sales. Sales is, for us, a critical part of the business. I think as the economy gets more challenging, I think it will also be challenging. But people are seeing value for money in secondhand goods. So I think there's a few forces at play here. Do I think it's going to be a challenge in the future if the macroeconomic environment continues to deteriorate? Yes, I do. But in balancing that, we are still seeing strong demand for secondhand goods just because it represents value for money, and it also is an environmentally responsible way to shop.

Great. And then secondly, I mean, E

Yes. No, that's exactly what we're trying to do. I think the pure growth in the number of rewards customers continues to be incredibly strong. It's got to come at a time or a quarter where that starts to slow, but we're very, very happy with the amount of customers that have signed up to the rewards program. And as you say, it's all now about engagement. So, I think I mentioned to you last quarter, we've got outsourced firm that's helping us to really maximize the value of that customer base. We're coming up with tailored marketing programs to that customer base to provide them with deals and discounts to get them back into the store. But look, I personally think it's an important part of the consumer story here where we think we're winning market share, we think it's part of growing PLO and sales. And I think it will continue -- if we get this engagement piece right, I think it's going to be really important in driving revenue and earnings.

Great. And I'll just ask a third one and then I'll hop back in the queue. Maybe this one is for Tim. I'm curious how we should think about expenses for fiscal 2024, just given the catch-up you experienced on some inflationary line items last year, will this year be more of a "normal year?"

Definitely still experiencing a little bit of inflation, obviously, a little bit less than we saw this year. But salary growth remains strong, keeping our tenured employees is a number one thing that we are trying to do. You also do have some pressure that is amounting in -- especially in Mexico with likely minimum wage increases yet again, and there's definitely a push to go to a 40-hour work week instead of 48 in Mexico. So, we're waiting to hear from the government down there on what's going to change. So, there are a number of things outside our control there, but I do see a little bit less than we've experienced this year.

Okay. Thanks guys.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question is going to be a follow-up from Brian McNamara. One moment. And Brian your line is open.

Great. Can you guys give an update on your progress in LatAm? It seems like there's a lot of low-hanging fruit there given the leadership changes implemented over the last year and the progress, particularly on some of the acquired stores that you kind of mentioned headwinds on over the last couple of quarters?

Sure. Look, I think it's probably our biggest strategic opportunity, is the -- not only the organic improvement in Latin America, particularly in Mexico, but also the inorganic opportunity. You can see that we're opening new stores, they're doing quite well, and there's a pretty robust acquisition pipeline down there. So I, think you're right in pointing it out, I think it is our biggest strategic opportunity. And it starts with the people. Blair, our COO, has done a magnificent job across all of the regions, but he started in the US and he started with the people, the bench strength. And that's what we're doing in Mexico now. We are revitalizing that culture, changing incentive programs to match our enhanced business model. So, we're seeing -- we're a few quarters into that now and we're definitely seeing strong signs of growth down there of improvement in the business, certainly in the bench strength of the people. So look, we expect that business to be a really big part of our story over the next one, two, three years.

Great. And then last one for me. I'm just curious what your plans are for capital allocation this year. You have some investments. You have a convert maturing. Investors we talk to say your stock is very cheap. They want repurchases to be, obviously, a higher priority. I'm just curious kind of how investors should think about share repurchases this year.

Look, another good point. We are trying to balance the growth opportunities. So, capital required to grow our earning assets as well as to build new stores as well as to acquire new stores. So, that's priority one, is really scaling this business up and capitalizing upon the growth. We also, as you know, we like to maintain a liquid balance sheet to do those things. But we are obviously buying back shares. We have $35 million-ish coming due in May. Clearly, we've got the cash to close that out, then we have another $100 million coming a year after that. So, look, I think the liquidity that we've got is a really strong story for us. And I think, given where the stock is out at the moment, you've seen that we've been pretty active in buying back shares. I think we've done $19 million now. Clearly, a high return on capital piece. But we will assess that each quarter to try and balance that with growth opportunities and debt maturities.

Thanks very much guys.

Thanks Brian.

And I'm not showing any further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Lachie for any closing remarks.

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining today. We will speak to most of you over the course of the day today. Thank you.