goeasy Ltd.

morning. My name is Lara and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Go Easy Limited Q1 2024 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on you to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star followed by the number 2. Thank you. Mr. Farhan Ali Khan, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. My name is Farhan Ali Khan, company senior vice president and chief corporate development officer, and thank you for joining us to discuss GoEasy Limited's results. First quarter ended March 31, 2024. The news release, which was issued yesterday after the close of market, is available on Cision and on the Go Easy website. Today, Jason Mullins, Go Easy's president and CEO, will review the results for the first quarter and provide an outlook for the business. Hal Corey, the company's chief financial officer, will also provide an overview of our capital and liquidity position. Jason Appel, the company's chief risk officer, is also on the call. After the prepared remarks, we will then open the lines for questions from investors. Before we begin, I remind you that this conference call is open to all investors and is being webcapped through the company's investor website and supplemented by a quarterly earnings presentation. For those dialing in directly by phone, the presentation can also be found directly on our investor site. All shareholders, analysts, and portfolio managers are welcome to ask questions over the phone after management has finished their prepared remarks. The operator will poll for questions and will provide instructions at the appropriate time. Business media are welcome to listen to this call and to use management's comments and responses to questions in any coverage. However, we would ask that they do not quote callers unless that individual has granted their consent. Today's discussion may be containing forward-looking statements. I'm not going to read the full statement, but will direct you to the caution regarding forward-looking statements included in the MD&A. I will now turn the call over to Jason Mullins.

Thanks, Farhan. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the call today. 2024 has gone off to a great start. We produced strong loan growth and stable credit performance, leading to record first quarter earnings, while also raising over $500 million of additional capital and earning a spot in the top 50 best workplaces in Canada. All of this is a testament to our team and their passion for helping Canadians with non-fine credit get access to the financial products that support their lives. A continued increase in market share and favorable competitive dynamics led to a record volume of application for credit at over 610,000, up over 40% from Q1 last year, generating over 40,000 new customers into the business, an increase of 17%. Loan originations during the quarter were $686 million, up 12% compared to $616 million produced in the first quarter of 2023. Organic loan growth, was $207 million during the quarter, with our loan portfolio finishing at $3.85 billion, up 29% year over year. Unsecured lending continues to be the largest product category, at over 60% of loan originations. And within our direct-to-consumer channel, the average loan portfolio across our branch network of 295 locations rose to a new high of $6 million per branch, up 18%. We also continue to make very good progress in scaling our automotive financing, with volume exceeding 100 million of originations for the second quarter in a row, an increase of 49% year over year. In the last year, we have expanded our automotive team, grown our dealer network from 2,800 dealers to over 3,500 dealers, and experienced a meaningful increase in funding volume from multi-location dealer groups, another positive sign that we are winning market share. As has been our strategy for the last seven years, we continue to pass on the benefits of scale to consumers by shifting our mix of lending toward lower APR products. The overall weighted average interest rate charged to our customers during the quarter reduced to 30% even. Combined with ancillary revenue sources, the total portfolio yield finished at 35%. Total revenue in the quarter was a record $357 million, up 24% over the same period in 2023. We also continue to be very pleased with the quality of our loan originations and credit performance of the overall portfolio. The dollar-weighted median credit score of our first quarter loan originations rose to an all-time high of 629, highlighting the benefits of our credit adjustments and improving product mix. Secured loans now also represent a record 42.7% of our loan portfolio. Despite the softening economic environment and unemployment being one point higher year over year at 6.1% today, credit losses have remained stable and within our forecasted range. The annualized net charge off rate during the first quarter was 9.1% at the midpoint of our expectations for the quarter and full year. To account for weaker economic performance forecasted in the near term, we've increased our loan loss provision rate slightly to 7.38% and 7.28% in the prior quarter. We continue to feel very confident in the credit quality of our portfolio, and that we will continue to see stable losses in the quarters ahead. As has been the case for the past few years, we are continuing to experience the benefits of scale through operating leverage and productivity improvements. During the first quarter, our efficiency ratio, specifically operating expenses as a percentage of revenue, improved to 27.4%, a reduction of 570 basis points, from 33.1% in the first quarter of the prior year. As a function of receivables, operating expenses were 10.3% versus 13% during the prior year, producing almost 400 basis points of margin to absorb the reduced APRs and higher funding costs. After adjusting for unusual items and non-recurring expenses, we reported record adjusted operating income of $144 million, an increase of 35% compared to $106 million in the first quarter of 2023. Adjusted operating margin for the first quarter was 40.2%, up from 37.1% in the same period last year. Adjusted debt income was $66.3 million, up 25% from $52.9 million in the first quarter of 2023, while adjusted diluted earnings per share was $3.83, up 24%, $3.10 in the first quarter of last year. Adjusted return on equity was above our target level of return at 24.6% in the quarter, an increase of 70 basis points from 23.9% in the same period last year. With that, I'll now pass it over to Hal to give an update on our balance sheet and capital position before providing some comments and our outlook.