EZCORP, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the EZ Corp First Quarter Fiscal 2022 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 would now like to turn the conference over to Jean Marie Young. investor relations with three-part advisors. Please go ahead, Gene.

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.easycorp.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 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 EZ Corp's Co-Interim Chief Executive Officers, Lockie Gibbon and Blair Powell, as well as Tim Judman, CFO. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Lockie Gibbon. Lockie?

Thanks, Jean, and good morning, everyone. We are delighted to have started fiscal 2022 with a strong quarter. Our team has continued to successfully execute on the strategic plan put in place at the end of fiscal 2020 and have significantly exceeded expectations for the quarter. Beginning on slide three, We are a global leader in pawnbroking and pre-owned and recycled retail. We operate 1149 stores in the US and Latin America and have strategic investments in adjacent businesses that expand our presence across the globe. On this slide, we talk about building shareholder value by satisfying the short-term cash needs of our customers with an industry-leading customer experience that is fueled by continuous innovation. We take pride in every one of our stores and have an intense focus on our people and the service they provide to our customers. During fiscal 2021, we added 139 stores in Mexico and the US. And we commenced this year with an investment in a business that owns 20 pawn stores in the Caribbean. And we will continue with our disciplined approach to pawn store acquisitions, both in the markets in which we currently operate and other advantageous regions that allow us to expand our geographic footprint. Moving to slide four, people, porn and passion is our overriding theme in all that we do. My colleague Blair Powell is responsible for devising this theme and has been an inspiration to watch our 6,500 team members rally so strongly behind it over the last 18 months. I think that this refocus on what we do best, which is simply to develop our people, serve our customers, make pawn loans and sell secondhand goods has been critical in driving the operating and financial momentum we are now seeing from our stores. Our team drives all of our success and so we continue to invest in training, incentives and cultural alignment to motivate and retain our best talent. We have an exceptionally strong balance sheet as we maintain liquidity that is essential for growing our porn books across all of our regions, pursue substantial opportunities for porn store expansion across the globe in a disciplined and a focused way. We are a compelling ESG platform, given the very nature of our core business. We extend the life of millions of second-hand items that are sold in our stores, and as a result, promote re-commerce at the neighbourhood level. We believe that ESG is core to who we are and what we do, and Blair will go into it in more detail in a few minutes. To slide five, this outlines the key components of our corporate strategy, which we announced to the market almost 18 months ago. I'm pleased to say that it continues to gain traction with our people and to drive strong financial results for our shareholders. We have invested time and resource into developing our team members, and I believe we have the most passionate and productive team in the industry. Our fundamental business model enhancements, driven by Blair and his team, have realized improved metrics on all fronts, including operational efficiencies, bottom line growth, and stronger return on capital. Improving the customer experience remains a core priority, and we have implemented a new points-based loyalty program and online payment options for pawn loans that are seeing strong early success with our customers. As I've said, we continue to focus on growing both organically and inorganically and have increased the geographic diversification of our porn business this quarter. On to slide six, turning to our key financial themes for the quarter. PLO, the most significant driver for revenue and earnings, was up 20% year over year, leading to a 20% increase in PSC. Net revenue was up 22% year over year and EBITDA was up 81%. Bottom-line performance is particularly pleasing, with diluted EPS up 69% from $0.13 to $0.22. This quarter's diluted EPS was affected by a change in the accounting standards related to convertible debt, which Tim will discuss in a few minutes. On slide 7, you see that, as expected, total expenses, store expenses and G&A were all up as we increased labour costs in line with the increase in transaction volume and store growth. But these metrics compare favorably when viewed as a percentage of net revenue when looked at on a trailing 12-month basis. Total expenses is a percentage of net revenue decreased to 84% in the last 12 months versus 92% from a year ago. Similarly, door expenses are 71% compared to 77% a year ago, and G&A expenses are 12% compared to 15% a year ago. With that, I will turn it to Blair.