CURO Group Holdings Corp. Reports First Quarter 2023 Financial Results

CURO Group Holdings Corp. (NYSE: CURO) (“CURO” or the “Company”), a tech-enabled, omni-channel consumer finance company serving consumers in the U.S. and Canada, today announced financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2023.

Highlights

• Net revenue increased 19.8% sequentially to $146.5 million
• Operating expenses declined 6.2% sequentially to $118.2 million, and $35.5 million and 23.1% year over year
• Gross loans receivables of $2.1 billion were slightly lower by 1.2% sequentially
• Net charge-off rate improved 326 bps sequentially to 11.5%, and 30 bps sequentially to 14.5% excluding the changes in the Direct Lending brands in Canada charge-off policies
• On May 9, 2023, finalized a $150.0 million term loan and a C$110.0 million non-recourse revolving warehouse facility

“Our first quarter results highlight the emerging benefits of our business transformation and differentiated operating model,” said Doug Clark, Chief Executive Officer of CURO. “Subsequent to the quarter, we successfully raised over $230 million in gross capital, a key step to executing our plan to profitability and demonstrates continued access to capital markets and supportive lending partners. We also delivered results that were favorable relative to our guidance expectations, including solid revenue, well-managed operating expenses and stable credit quality. With a close eye on the various challenges presented by the macro environment, we will continue to execute on our business plan, support our customers and remain focused on generating long-term sustainable returns for our investors.”

Consolidated Summary Results

For the three months ended March 31, 2023, the Company had total revenue of $209.5 million compared with total revenue of $217.2 million sequentially, primarily driven by product mix shift. Net revenue was $146.5 million, an increase of $24.2 million, or 19.8% sequentially, primarily driven by a lower provision for loan loss expense related to the decrease in the net charge-off rate.

For the three months ended March 31, 2023, the Company had total operating expenses of $118.2 million, a decrease of $7.8 million, or 6.2%, sequentially. The decline reflected lower restructuring charges and operating expenses, in both cases related to store closures and headcount reductions in the U.S. and Canada. One-time restructuring charges recognized in the first quarter of 2023 and the fourth quarter of 2022 were $10.0 million and $13.1 million, respectively, representing $3.1 million of the sequential decrease.

Net loss of $59.5 million ($1.46 per share) for the three months ended March 31, 2023, compared with Net loss of $186.4 million ($4.60 per share) for the three months ended December 31, 2022. The $126.9 million improvement in Net loss in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the prior quarter was driven by a $24.2 million increase in net revenue quarter over quarter due to product mix shift, the decline in Provision for loan loss, a $7.8 million decrease in total Operating expenses related to store closures and restructuring activities completed in the fourth quarter of 2022 and the $145.2 million Goodwill impairment charge in the fourth quarter of 2022, with no such charge in the first quarter of 2023, partially offset by a $29.0 million Provision for income taxes to create a valuation allowance on U.S. deferred tax assets, and a $4.0 million increase in Interest expense.

Gross loans receivable of $2.1 billion at March 31, 2023 were slightly lower by 1.2% sequentially, primarily driven by a decrease of $55.2 million, or 6.9%, in Direct Lending Installment Loans, partially offset by an increase of $19.8 million, or 2.4%, in Canada POS Lending.

As of January 1, 2023, the Company adopted Accounting Standards Update No. 2016-13, Financial Instruments—Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments ("CECL"). This adoption resulted in a onetime pre-tax increase to our Allowance for loan losses of $135.2 million, which was recorded to opening Accumulated deficit and did not impact the Statement of Operations.

The Company's Net charge-off rate in the first quarter improved 326 bps, sequentially, to 11.5%, primarily driven by a change in our Direct Lending brands in Canada charge-off policies during the quarter, as part of the alignment of charge-off policies across the Company, as well as improved recoveries as a result of improvements to our credit collection processes. The Company's 91+ days delinquency ratio increased by 60 bps, sequentially, to 3.2% primarily driven by these policy changes.

Funding and Liquidity

As of March 31, 2023, principal debt balances outstanding of $2.7 billion, which consisted of 65.5% of fixed rate or hedged variable rate debt and 34.5% of variable rate debt. We had $54.9 million of Cash and cash equivalents on the Consolidated Balance Sheet and available for general corporate purposes.

As of March 31, 2023, unrestricted cash and cash equivalents, together with $109.9 million in unused borrowing capacity and $140.1 million of unencumbered Gross loans receivable, provided approximately $303.6 million in available capital resources.

About CURO

CURO Group Holdings Corp. (NYSE: CURO) is a leading consumer credit lender serving U.S. and Canadian customers for over 25 years. Our roots in the consumer finance market run deep. We’ve worked diligently to provide customers a variety of convenient, easily accessible financial services. Our decades of diversified data power a hard-to-replicate underwriting and scoring engine, mitigating risk across the full spectrum of credit products. We operate a number of brands including Cash Money®, LendDirect®, Flexiti®, Heights Finance, Southern Finance, Covington Credit, Quick Credit and First Heritage Credit.

Conference Call

CURO will host a conference call to discuss these results at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, May 10, 2023. The live webcast of the call can be accessed at the CURO Investor Relations website at http://ir.curo.com/.

You may access the call at 1-833-953-2430 (1-412-317-5759 for international callers). Please ask to join the CURO Group Holdings call. A replay of the conference call will be available until May 17, 2023, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. An archived version of the webcast will be available on the CURO Investors website for 90 days. You may access the conference call replay at 1-877-344-7529 (1-412-317-0088 for international callers). The replay access code is 1314764.

Final Results

The financial results presented and discussed herein are on a preliminary and unaudited basis; final unaudited data will be included in the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended March 31, 2023.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include projections, estimates and assumptions about various matters, such as future financial and operational performance, including our belief in the benefits of our business transformation and differentiated operating model, our ability to execute on our plan to profitability and demonstrate continued access to capital markets and our ability to execute on our business plan, support our customers and remain focused on generating long-term sustainable returns for our investors. In addition, words such as “guidance,” “estimate,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “forecast,” “step,” “plan,” “predict,” “focused,” “project,” “is likely,” “expect,” "anticipate," “intend,” “should,” “will,” “confident,” variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Our ability to achieve these forward-looking statements is based on certain assumptions, judgments and other factors, both within and outside of our control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, including: risks relating to the uncertainty of projected financial and operational information and forecasts, including errors in our internal forecasts; our ability to manage growth; our dependence on third-party lenders to provide the cash we need to fund our loans and our ability to affordably access third-party financing; our level of indebtedness; the effects of competition on our business; our ability to attract and retain customers; global economic, market, financial, political or health conditions or events; actions of regulators and the impact of those actions on our business; our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses; our ability to protect our proprietary technology and analytics and keep up with that of our competitors; disruption of our information technology systems that adversely affect our business operations; ineffective pricing of the credit risk of our prospective or existing customers; inaccurate information supplied by customers or third parties that could lead to errors in judging customers’ qualifications to receive loans; improper disclosure of customer personal data; failure of third parties who provide products, services or support to us; disruption to our relationships with banks and other third-party electronic payment solutions providers as well as other factors discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These projections, estimates and assumptions may prove to be inaccurate in the future. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict with regard to timing, extent, likelihood and degree of occurrence. There may be additional risks that we presently do not know or that we currently believe are immaterial that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Given these risks and uncertainties, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual future results. We undertake no obligation to update, amend or clarify any forward-looking statement for any reason.

(CURO-NWS)

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