EZCORP, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the EZ Corp third 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 may be recorded. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Jean-Marie Young, investor relations with three-part advisors. Please go ahead, Jean.

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.easycorps.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 their 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 effect of foreign currency fluctuations and other discrete items. Joining us on the call today, our EasyCorps Chief Executive Officer, Lockie Givens, and Tim Judman, Chief Financial Officer. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Lockie Givens. Lockie?

Thanks, Jean, and good morning, everyone. Our team continues to consistently execute on the strategic plan we announced to the market at the end of fiscal 2020, evidenced by another outstanding quarter of financial results. I'd like to acknowledge and thank our team of 6,800 staff for their tireless efforts in serving our customers in such a passionate, respectful, and responsible way, and for delivering another very strong quarter of results for our shareholders. Hormone's outstanding, the key driver of our business, and is at its highest level ever. On a consolidated same store basis, it has surpassed pre-pandemic levels by 5%. Merchandise sales gross profit margin was 38% at the high end of our range, even while we were able to decrease aged general merchandise to less than 1% of total GM inventory. Adjusted EBITDA was up 100% versus the same quarter last year, and that income is three times where it was at this time last year on a year-to-date basis. Side three, we are a global leader in pawnbroking and pre-owned and recycled retail. We operate 1,163 stores in the US and Latin America with strategic investments in adjacent businesses. which expand our geographic footprint worldwide. Across our diverse surveys, we offer two core products to our customers. We make pawn loans and we sell second-hand goods. As we enter a more challenging macroeconomic environment globally, we expect increasing demand for both of these products. On the lending side, our customers continue to be impacted by inflationary pressures, high gas prices, and the tightening of credit availability from alternative lenders. We also expect the general demand for secondhand goods to increase as existing and new customers search for great value for money deals while looking after the environment in which we all live. Moving on to slide four, people, porn and passion continues to be our core operating theme. Our diverse and engaged team drives our success. We continue to invest in hiring, training and development so that we can continuously improve corporate culture and attract and retain the best talent. We believe that our team driving outstanding customer service combined with our proprietary POS system, differentiated digital and IT platform, and strong and liquid balance sheets make us the best choice for our customers' porn and recycled retail needs. Slide five shows our progression toward our three-year strategic goals. I believe we have the most passionate, productive, committed, and motivated team in the industry, and we continue to find new ways to enhance their experience. We are transforming the customer experience and modernizing the core points in us. Our points-based loyalty program and online payment options have been well-received by our customers and have grown substantially again this quarter. We implemented 3DS Secure for added customer protection and fraud prevention on card payments. Additionally, we ran our first national bonus points campaign in the US to drive store sales and enrollment, and it was a great success. Turning to our key financial themes for Q3 on slide six. As mentioned, PLO, the most significant driver for revenue and earnings, was up 30% year-over-year, leading to a 33% increase in PSC. As a result, we saw significant improvements in revenue, earnings, and expenses as a percentage of gross profit, while keeping aged inventory under 1%. What we used to call net revenue, we now call gross profit, and it was up 20% year-over-year, and EBITDA was up 100%. Flood 7, you can see the total expenses increased year over year, primarily due to increases in store count and labour. However, for the past 12 months, total expenses as a percentage of gross profit decreased from 92% to 80%. Store expenses increased year over year with store count increasing, but decreased as a percentage of gross profit from 77% to 69%. G&A increased 2.5 million year-over-year, but decreased as a percentage of gross profit from 15% to 12%. On slide eight, we talk about strengthening our core with a focus on people and systems. We conducted a global engagement survey of our employees last month, and we were very pleased with the results, significantly beating global benchmarks. Our commitment to investing in our people through ongoing training and development and our focus on inclusion initiatives and cultural transformation continue to drive improvements in our team member experience, which we believe contributes to our excellent operating and financial results. We are hiring and retaining great people who are aligned with our corporate culture. Our team is enthusiastic and engaged. We continue to enhance our technology, infrastructure and modernize the company. This is transforming customer experiences, simplifying processes for our team in the stores and increasing our operational efficiencies. On slide nine, innovation and growth is the third pillar to our three-year strategy, and we continue to be pleased with our progress here. Our EasyPlus loyalty system now has over 1.4 million customers enrolled, versus over 930,000 last quarter. We collected $7 million in online payments this quarter, providing our customers with convenient options for both porn and layaway servicing. We received more than 15,000 Google reviews in the quarter, averaging 4.9 stars in the US and Latin America. Our inventory showcase pilot continues in 183 stores in the US. We are also piloting the fully commerce experience in 13 stores in Mexico. We're capturing new customers as the search for our products becomes much more convenient. From an inorganic perspective, we opened eight de novo stores in Latin America during the quarter and acquired three stores in the Dallas area. We've increased our stake in cash converters from 39% to 41%, and the acquisition pipeline remains robust, and we continue to remain disciplined when evaluating these opportunities. Slide 10 outlines our ESG highlights. Our business, by its very nature, makes us part of the circular economy. We are a significant recycler of secondhand goods in hundreds of local neighbourhoods. We do not use factories, distribution facilities, or heavy trucking. we are extending the useful life of millions of items and saving them from landfill. This quarter, we procured over 1.6 million pre-owned items and sold approximately 1.4 million items, making from consumer electrics, cameras, household goods, tools, musical instruments and jewellery. In addition, we provide an essential, simple, regulated and transparent financial resource for those who are underserved by traditional sources. Diversity inclusion remains a significant focus. And this quarter, we launched our first Black Empowerment Affinity Group. As I've said, we continue to invest in global training and development programs and talent review and succession planning processes. And this quarter introduced our first career week for all of our team members. In addition, over the past few years, the EasyCorp Foundation has awarded $180,000 in scholarship funding to families of our team members. We're always in search of innovative and genuine ways in which we can positively impact our team members, customers, and the communities in which we serve. I would now like to turn the call over to Tim Judman, our CFO, to provide more details on our financial results. Tim?