EZCORP, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the EZ Corp Fourth Quarter and Full Year Fiscal 2021 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, this call may be recorded. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Gene Marie Young, investor relations with three part advisors please go ahead gene

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. During our prepared remarks, we'll 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 or implied by these forward-looking statements due to the number of risks and other factors that are discussed in our annual quarterly and other reports filed with the SEC. And as noted in our presentation materials, and unless otherwise identified, results are presented on an adjusted basis to remove the effect of foreign currency fluctuations and other discrete items. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to EZ Corp's Chief Executive Officer, Jason Koulis. Jason?

Thanks, Jean, and good morning, everyone. I would first like to acknowledge everyone on our team for having exceeded expectations for our fiscal year 2021. Throughout the year, our key performance indicators have improved and we are seeing continuous signs of recovery from the pandemic. We believe that the steps we have taken throughout the year to implement our strategic initiatives have us well positioned to benefit as we return to a more normalized operating environment. During the fourth quarter, we saw Plum Loans Outstanding, or PLO, grow to 174 million, up 32% year over year, to our highest level since the beginning of the pandemic. And for those of you who are new to our business, PLO is a leading indicator of the health of our core pawn business. Again, I credit our entire team in our stores and our corporate offices who has embraced our plan and has continued to execute, delivering strong results for our shareholders and our customers. As we begin to move through the presentation, I also want to acknowledge our investor relations team for helping us refresh and update the format of the materials. Beginning on slide three, we relentlessly strive for continuous improvement and focus on providing an industry-leading experience for both our customers and team members. And this, coupled with organic and inorganic growth, is how we build long-term shareholder value. During fiscal 2021, we completed the acquisition of 128 stores in Mexico, acquired 11 stores in the Houston area, and opened 15 de novo stores in Latin America. We now own and operate 1,148 stores in five countries. We look forward to leveraging our strong balance sheet to look for more opportunities to continue to grow our store base and expand our footprint into new markets. Moving on to the drivers on slide four, people, pawn, passion is our overriding theme. Our strong balance sheet and liquidity are crucial to enable us to meet our customers' needs. We're investing in our 6,500 team members aimed at retaining the best talent through enhancing training programs, consistently rewarding performance, and continually improving corporate culture. The success we achieved in the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2021 is evidence that our strategic initiatives rolled out at the end of fiscal 2020 are driving the business. Beyond our financial achievements, our role in the circular economy is core to who we are. Natural resources are saved when you buy a recycled item at a pawn shop, instead of buying it new. We are committed to sustainability and providing a diverse and inclusive culture for all of our team members. On slide five, you can see that we achieved our strategic goals for 2021. With a focus on team members and a passion for serving customers, we focused on three core areas. The first was strengthening the core business down to the store level, executing on both the pawn and retail aspects of our business, and becoming better managers of inventory. The second was achieving cost savings of 14 plus million and building a culture of cost consciousness. And the third was growth and innovation, which we achieved through store growth and additional digital offerings for our customers. As we look ahead into fiscal 2022, we haven't changed our strategy. Rather, we will continue to execute on it, putting even more emphasis on developing our team members and serving our customers as we execute on our core business, look for incremental efficiencies, and continue to grow and innovate, starting with the launch of our points-based loyalty program in October. Turning to our key financial themes for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021. As I mentioned earlier, PLO, the most significant driver for revenue and earnings, is up 32% year over year, leading to a 30% increase in PSC. Net revenue was up 31% year over year, and EBITDA was up 47%. Merchandise sales gross profit was up 38% year-over-year, driven by higher sales and a 41% sales gross profit margin. Our margins are the direct result of the ongoing effort to focus on effective inventory management. HGM inventory improved to less than 1% from 6%, and our strong liquidity position enables us to fund both PLO and inorganic growth going forward. Slide seven shows that on a normalized basis, total expenses for fiscal year 2021 were down 7%, store expenses were down 4%, and G&A was down 21%. As we've mentioned previously, as transaction volume continues to grow, we would expect certain expenses to increase in fiscal 22. Our efforts to strengthen the core, addressed on slide 8, are directly tied to our focus on people and systems. With a strong team and great systems, we can more effectively serve our customers, make good pawn decisions, and manage inventory. We are excited to announce that we have named Blair Powell President of Global Pawn, with responsibility for all pawn operations worldwide. This global alignment will enhance the in-store experience, optimize expenses, and further drive profitability while we continue to benefit from having a strong local presence in each of our markets. Training, operational talent reviews, and performance calibration sessions are in place to allow team members to understand their goals and measure achievements. Inclusion initiatives and cultural transformation remain a focus for us as we ensure our team members are aligned with our guiding principles of leadership, customer service, accountability, respect, diversity and sustainability. We also updated our proprietary point of sale system to support our fully integrated easy plus loyalty program. Process efficiency continues to improve with online initiatives, automatic ID scanning, enhanced telephony, modernizing store networks and deploying enhanced wifi. IT modernization will continue to enhance operations and productivity. We believe strongly that innovation is an essential driver for sustainable growth. As you can see on slide nine, online extension payments grew to 11% in Q4 from 9% in Q3, and over 6,000 online layaway payments took place versus 5,000 in Q3. Our customers tell us that they appreciate having these convenient options for pawn and layaway servicing. We are also pleased to announce that our easy plus loyalty program went live in us stores in October and launched in Latin America early this month. Early feedback is very positive. You will see more consistent use of the easy plus branding going forward as we streamline the digital customer experience. After launching our inventory showcase test in May, we now have over 18,000 items listed online with over 140 stores currently participating, which we believe is helping us capture new customers as the search for certain items becomes much more convenient. Store growth is an important element of our strategy. We added 143 stores in fiscal 2021 and have continued our inorganic growth in October, investing $15 million in and a company that owns more than 20 pawn stores, primarily in the Caribbean. The integration of our recent acquisitions in Mexico and the US is going well, and the acquisition pipeline remains robust. The very nature of our business, extending the useful life of and recycling millions of items, contributes to the circular economy. According to the EPA, the US had 292.4 million tons of waste in 2018, That is nearly five pounds of waste per person. By purchasing items in a pawn shop instead of buying new, our customers are reducing that waste. In addition to selling pre-owned items, there are many other aspects of our business that have a positive impact on the environment. Our stores are located in the communities we service, reducing customer travel and delivery. We do not have warehouses and distribution facilities, and our stores have a relatively small carbon footprint. Highlighting other ESG topics, we provide an essential, simple, regulated, and transparent financial resource for those who are underserved by traditional sources. The way we do business is as important as the business we do. This is the theme of our code of conduct, and we maintain a strong compliance culture overseen by our board of directors. Independent directors hold four of the six seats on our board, and we satisfy NASDAQ's recently enacted board diversity rules. Beyond selling over 5 million pre-owned items, we retrofitted 65% of our US stores with energy-efficient LED lighting and recycled over 1.8 million pounds of paper in the US. We provided over 26,000 hours of quarantine pay for team members affected by COVID-19 and four hours of paid time off to each team member to encourage vaccination. We also implemented a two-year diversity and inclusion plan In the U.S., 65% of team members and 55% of managers identify as an underrepresented minority. Globally, 51% of team members and 42% of managers identify as female. I will return at the end with some closing comments, but I would now like to turn the call over to Tim Jugmans, our Chief Financial Officer, to provide more details on our financial results. Tim?