false0000876523 0000876523 2019-07-31 2019-07-31

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

_______________________________________________________ 

FORM 8-K

_______________________________________________________ 

CURRENT REPORT

PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE

SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): July 31, 2019 (July 31, 2019)

 _______________________________________________ 

EZCORP, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 _______________________________________________________ 

Delaware		0-19424		74-2540145
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation)		(Commission File Number)		(IRS Employer Identification No.)

2500 Bee Cave Road, Bldg One, Suite 200, Rollingwood, Texas 78746

(Address of principal executive offices) (zip code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (512) 314-3400

_______________________________________________________ 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class		Trading Symbol(s)		Name of each exchange on which registered
Class A Non-voting Common Stock, par value $.01 per share		EZPW		NASDAQ Stock Market	(NASDAQ Global Select Market)

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions:

☐	Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)
☐	Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)
☐	Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))
☐	Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933 (§230.405 of this chapter) or Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (§240.12b-2 of this chapter).

		Emerging growth company	☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

---

Item 2.02 — Results of Operations and Financial Condition

On July 31, 2019, EZCORP, Inc. issued a press release announcing its results of operations and financial condition for the quarter ended June 30, 2019. A copy of that press release is attached as Exhibit 99.1.

In addition to the financial information prepared in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America ("GAAP"), we provide certain other non-GAAP financial information on a constant currency basis ("constant currency") and adjusted basis. We use constant currency results to evaluate our Latin America Pawn operations, which are denominated primarily in Mexican pesos and other Latin American currencies. We believe that presentation of constant currency results is meaningful and useful in understanding the activities and business metrics of our Latin America Pawn operations and reflect an additional way of viewing aspects of our business that, when viewed with GAAP results, provide a more complete understanding of factors and trends affecting our business. We believe that presentation of adjusted results, including adjustments for non-cash interest income and expenses, discrete equity method investment charges, start up and acquisition related costs, reserves related to a refiner, tax effects, and other, are meaningful and useful in understanding the activities and business metrics of our operations exclusive of certain non-core operating variances and other infrequent charges.

We provide non-GAAP financial information for informational purposes and to enhance understanding of our GAAP consolidated financial statements. Readers should consider the information in addition to, but not instead of or superior to, our financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. This non-GAAP financial information may be determined or calculated differently by other companies, limiting the usefulness of those measures for comparative purposes.

The information set forth under this Item 2.02, including Exhibit 99.1, shall not be deemed “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section, and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference in any filing made by EZCORP under the Securities Act of 1933 or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Item 7.01 — Regulation FD Disclosure

A copy of the presentation materials that management will review during the company’s third quarter 2019 earnings conference call (to be held on August 1, 2019) will be posted in the Investor Relations section of the company’s website at www.ezcorp.com.

Item 9.01 — Financial Statements and Exhibits

(d)	Exhibits.

99.1	Press Release, dated July 31, 2019, announcing EZCORP, Inc.’s results of operations and financial condition for the quarter ended June 30, 2019.

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

					EZCORP, INC.
Date:	July 31, 2019				By:		/s/ David McGuire
							David McGuire
							Deputy Chief Financial Officer and Chief Accounting Officer

•

Total revenues for the quarter were up 1% to $202.5 million. Included in the GAAP results is a discrete $6.1 million adjustment in Latin America to correct the calculation of certain transaction tax liabilities in prior periods ($4.6 million of which reduced merchandise sales and $1.5 million of which increased interest expense). Adjusted1 total revenues increased 4% to $206.9 million, driven by continued growth in key pawn operating metrics including pawn loans outstanding (PLO), pawn service charges (PSC) and merchandise sales, across U.S. and Latin America.

•

Income before tax was $3.5 million, down 78%, and diluted earnings per share were $0.06, down 76%. These year-over-year comparisons were impacted primarily by a favorable litigation settlement in the prior-year quarter, the inclusion in the current quarter of costs related to certain growth investments, and other discrete items. Excluding those items and adjusting for constant currency2, adjusted income before tax was $15.0 million, up 16%, and adjusted diluted earnings per share were $0.18, up 13%.

•

Cash and cash equivalents ended the current quarter at $138.9 million, after the retirement of $195.0 million of convertible notes in June 2019 using cash on hand and continued investment in growth initiatives. During the quarter, the company completed the acquisition of seven pawn stores in Nevada for $7.0 million and collected another $7.3 million of principal under the Alpha Credit / Grupo Finmart notes.

---

•

Net revenues were up 1% to $115.9 million on both a GAAP and constant currency basis. Adjusted net revenues increased 5% to $120.4 million. PLO growth of 4% (based on ending balance) and 7% (based on average balances), combined with a slight improvement in yields drove a 9% increase in PSC to $79.0 million. Consolidated merchandise sales gross profit declined 11% to $33.6 million on a 1% decrease in merchandise sales. Adjusted sales gross profit improved 1% to $38.1 million and sales margins decreased 90 basis points to 35.2%, reflecting the effective liquidation of aged general merchandise in U.S. Pawn from 7% to 6% in the current quarter.

•

Consolidated operations expenses rose 2% to $84.7 million on both a GAAP and constant currency basis. Total store count also increased 2%, consisting of a net 18 stores acquired or opened since the prior year quarter (19 new and acquired stores in Latin America and seven acquired stores in the U.S., net of eight store closures in Canada and the U.S.). Same store operations expense increased 1% primarily due to labor and benefit cost increases, including reduced vacancies and increased staffing for expanded stores, an increase in robbery losses in Mexico, and other smaller items.

•	Administrative expense increased 13%, or $1.8 million to $15.1 million principally as a result of a $1.3 million strategic investment in the development of the Evergreen customer-centric digital platform. Another $2.9 million related to this project was capitalized in the quarter, based on the nature of the specific work performed.

•	The company’s global pawn businesses (consisting of U.S. Pawn and Latin America Pawn) generated consolidated segment contribution of $25.7 million, down 14% from the prior year quarter. On an adjusted basis, global pawn generated consolidated segment contribution of $31.7 million, up 6%.

•	Contribution from the Other International segment improved $1.2 million to $0.9 million.

•

Net interest expense increased $3.6 million. Excluding the $1.5 million of interest related to the transaction tax adjustment, net interest expense increased $2.1 million driven by additional debt issued in May 2018 and lower interest income on the declining balance of notes receivable from Alpha Credit as principal collections are received monthly, offset by the June 2019 repayment of our $195.0 million cash convertible senior notes.

•	Same store PSC rose 6%, with ending PLO per store of $289,000, up 3% on a year-over-year basis. The growth reflected disciplined lending practices and a focus on meeting customers' need for cash.

•

Merchandise margins remained strong at 37%. The 60 basis point margin reduction from the prior-year quarter reflects effective liquidation of aged general merchandise inventory, reduced during the quarter from 7% to 6%. Jewelry scrapping net revenues decreased $0.2 million on $3.9 million lower scrap proceeds, reflecting lower current market prices for scrap diamonds and an effort to sell more jewelry in store rather than to refiners at lower margins. Scrap margins improved 250 basis points to 16%.

---

•	U.S. Pawn's net revenues rose 3% to $92.0 million, with flat combined operating expenses and depreciation, resulting in an 11% increase in segment contribution to $23.6 million.

•	Net revenues declined 3% to $23.2 million ($23.3 million on a constant currency basis). Adjusted net revenues increased 16% to $27.7 million reflecting growth in new, acquired and same stores.

•	PSC rose 20% to $20.3 million on both a GAAP and a constant currency basis, reflecting an 18% increase in average PLO for the quarter. Ending PLO grew 6% to $41.7 million (up 4% to $41.0 million on a constant currency basis), with ending PLO per store of $89,000, up 2%.

•	Merchandise sales decreased 4%, or $0.8 million (4% or $1.0 million constant currency). On an adjusted basis, merchandise sales increased 17%, or $3.6 million and gross margin on merchandise sales declined 100 basis points to 29%.

•

Operations expense increased 22% to $18.3 million, including stores acquired or opened since the prior-year quarter and stores expanded or relocated, for which the revenue improvement is expected to lag the incremental costs. Same store operations expense increased 12%, primarily as a result of store licensing requirements recently enacted in Mexico, an increase in robbery losses and related security costs, and labor costs that increased at a rate slightly lower than the total revenue growth.

•	The company added four de novo stores in the quarter. New stores drive attractive long-term profit enhancement but create a short-term drag on earnings as they ramp. Acquired stores are generally less efficient than our same stores until fully integrated, but typically are accretive in their first full quarter of ownership.

•	Segment contribution decreased 76% to $2.1 million (72% on a constant currency basis). Adjusted segment contribution decreased 4% to $8.0 million as a result of new and acquired stores, recently expanded and relocated stores, and the operations expense increase previously described combined with administrative costs to support the growth.

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---