Upbound Group Inc (UPBD) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Hello and welcome to the Upbound Group in 4th quarter 2024 earnings conference call.

您好，歡迎參加 Upbound Group 2024 年第四季財報電話會議。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

I would now like to turn the conference over to Jeffrey. You may begin.

現在我想將會議交給傑弗裡。你可以開始了。

Good morning and thank you all for joining us to discuss the company's performance for the 4th quarter and full year of 2024. We issued our earnings release this morning before the market opened, and the release and all related materials, including a link to the live webcast, are available on our website at investor.upbound.com.

早安，感謝大家加入我們討論公司 2024 年第四季和全年的業績。我們在今早市場開盤前發布了收益報告，該報告及所有相關資料（包括網路直播連結）均可在我們的網站 investor.upbound.com 上查閱。

On the call today from Upbound Group, we have Mitchell Fadel, our CEO, and Fahmi Karam, our CFO. As a reminder, some of the statements provided on this call are forward-looking and are subject to factors that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from our expectations.

今天 Upbound Group 的電話會議由我們的執行長 Mitchell Fadel 和財務長 Fahmi Karam 主持。提醒一下，本次電話會議中提供的一些聲明是前瞻性的，並且受可能導致實際結果與我們的預期產生重大不利差異的因素的影響。

These factors are described in our earnings release as well as in the company's SEC filings. Upbound Group undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements except as required by law. This call will also include references to non-gap financial measures.

這些因素在我們的收益報告以及公司的美國證券交易委員會文件中均有描述。除法律要求外，Upbound Group 不承擔公開更新或修改任何前瞻性聲明的義務。此次呼籲也將提及非差距財務措施。

Please refer to today's earnings releases, which can be found on our website for a description of the non-gap financial measures and the reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP financial measures.

請參閱今天的收益報告，該報告可在我們的網站上找到，其中介紹了非差距財務指標以及與最具可比性的 GAAP 財務指標的對帳情況。

Finally, abound group is not responsible for and does not edit or guarantee the accuracy of our earnings teleconference transcripts provided by third parties. Please refer to our website for the only authorized webcasts.

最後，abound group 不對第三方提供的我們的收益電話會議記錄的準確性負責，也不編輯或保證其準確性。請造訪我們的網站以取得唯一授權的網路廣播。

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Mitchell.

說完這些，我會把電話轉給米切爾。

Thank you, Jeff, and good morning everyone.

謝謝你，傑夫，大家早安。

Before I begin, I'd like to take a moment to address the announcement we made this morning about my decision to retire as CEO and step down from the board, as well as the appointment of Fahmi Karam as Upbound Group's next CEO effective June 1st of this year.

在開始之前，我想花點時間談談我們今天上午宣布的決定，我決定辭去首席執行官職務並退出董事會，以及任命法赫米·卡拉姆 (Fahmi Karam) 為 Upbound Group 的下一任首席執行官，該任命將於今年 6 月 1 日生效。

This transition follows a deliberate and thoughtful succession planning process in which Fay emerged as the board's unanimous choice for the role.

此次過渡遵循了深思熟慮的繼任計劃流程，其中 Fay 成為董事會一致選擇的繼任者。

Fay joined the company as an EVP and Chief Financial Officer 2.5 years ago as an experienced leader with an outstanding track record of strategic and financial execution, as well as deep experience with subprime consumers.

兩年半前，Fay 加入公司擔任執行副總裁兼首席財務官，他是一位經驗豐富的領導者，在策略和財務執行方面擁有出色的記錄，並且在次級消費者方面擁有豐富的經驗。

Since then, he's become an instrumental force behind our success, including driving the Bridget acquisition. Assisting and integrating a FEMA and achieving its strong growth.

從那時起，他就成為我們成功的重要力量，包括推動布里奇特的收購。協助和整合FEMA並實現其強勁成長。

Over my 40 years at the company, this industry has changed immensely.

在我為公司工作的40年裡，這個產業發生了巨大的變化。

But we've remained at the forefront every step of the way, from brick and mortar consolidation in the 90s and 2000s, establishing the first national third party LTO business in 2005 to becoming a leader in the virtual channel today.

但我們始終走在前列，從 90 年代和 21 世紀的實體店整合，到 2005 年建立第一家全國第三方 LTO 業務，再到如今成為虛擬通路的領導者。

We remained a leader thanks to our innovative spirit and our relentless commitment to our mission to elevate financial opportunity for all.

憑藉著創新精神和對提升所有人金融機會使命的不懈承諾，我們始終保持領先地位。

Thanks to the stellar execution of our team, we've closed the two transformative acquisitions of AEA and Bridget and firmly established ourselves as a technology-driven growth company with a differentiated and expanding platform of financial solutions for underserved consumers.

由於我們團隊的出色執行，我們完成了對 AEA 和 Bridget 的兩項變革性收購，並牢固確立了自己作為一家技術驅動型增長型公司的地位，為服務不足的消費者提供差異化且不斷擴展的金融解決方案平台。

With Upbound in a position of incredible strength, now is the right time to make this change, and Sammy is the right person to lead the company in this next chapter. I look forward to continuing to work closely with them over the coming months to ensure a smooth transition.

由於 Upbound 擁有令人難以置信的優勢，現在正是做出這項改變的最佳時機，而 Sammy 則是帶領公司開啟新篇章的最佳人選。我期待在未來幾個月繼續與他們密切合作，以確保順利過渡。

With that, let's begin with a review of key highlights from 2024, as well as the discussion of our priorities for 2025. Then FAI will share more detailed review of our financial results and our outlook. After that, we'll take some questions.

首先，讓我們回顧一下 2024 年的主要亮點，並討論 2025 年的優先事項。然後，FAI 將分享我們財務業績和展望的更詳細回顧。之後，我們將回答一些問題。

Let's begin with a brief look at our recent achievements which collectively represented another significant step forward for the company in our mission to elevate financial opportunity for all and to achieve our strategic growth objectives.

首先，讓我們簡單回顧一下我們最近的成就，這些成就共同代表著公司在提升所有人的金融機會和實現策略成長目標的使命上又邁出了重要一步。

And the theme of the momentum we generated in the second half of 2023 continued across 2024 as we welcomed nearly a million new customers to our network by onboarding thousands of new merchants.

我們在 2023 年下半年創造的良好勢頭將在 2024 年延續，我們透過吸收數千家新商戶，迎來了近百萬新客戶加入我們的網路。

Reflecting the success of Acimaindustry-leading sales force, merchant productivity gains, are growing direct to consumer marketplace, and the trade down impact stemming from a tighter credit environment.

反映了 Acimain 領先業界銷售團隊的成功、商家生產力的提高、直接面向消費者的市場的成長、以及信貸環境收緊所帶來的貿易下滑影響。

Asima was able to capture share throughout the year highlighted by numerous regional wins, and I'm pleased to announce already in the 1st quarter two more TOP50 furniture merchants have elected to move to Acima as their preferred partner.

Asima 全年都能夠佔領市場份額，這得益於其在多個地區的勝利，我很高興地宣布，在第一季度，又有兩家 TOP50 家具商選擇 Acima 作為他們的首選合作夥伴。

Speaking of merchant growth, we've achieved all-time highs for active locations, which increased approximately 10% year over year.

說到商家成長，我們的活躍地點數量創下了歷史新高，年增約 10%。

Our large and diverse merchant roster also limits concentration risk. In fact, as TOP10 retailers represent approximately 30% of the GMV.

我們龐大且多樣化的商家名冊也限制了集中風險。事實上，TOP10 零售商佔了約 30% 的 GMV。

All of these factors in our commitment to top tier service for our consumers and our merchants helped the Acima deliver top line growth of over 17% for the year, with revenue ending at approximately $2.3 billion.

我們致力於為消費者和商家提供頂級服務，所有這些因素幫助 Acima 實現了全年超過 17% 的營收成長，最終收入約為 23 億美元。

And even while serving a record number of consumers, the Acima team completed the conversion of the AO stores into Acima platform, established a field customer service network in collaboration with Rent-A-Center, and launched a lease ability engine for the Acima marketplace, which guides shoppers to lease eligible durable goods on unintegrated e-commerce sites with a broad array of merchandise.

在服務創紀錄數量的消費者的同時，Acima 團隊完成了 AO 商店向 Acima 平台的轉換，與 Rent-A-Center 合作建立了現場客戶服務網絡，並為 Acima 市場推出了租賃能力引擎，引導購物者在商品種類繁多的未集成電子商務網站上租賃符合條件的耐用品。

We believe these efforts will support and extend the sea's growth into 2025 and beyond while also prudently maintaining our stable consumer risk file.

我們相信，這些努力將支持和延續海洋的成長到2025年及以後，同時也審慎地維持我們穩定的消費者風險文件。

The [Rar team] focused on elevating the customer experience in 2024 while concurrently managing its operating expenses to deliver stable EA and cash flow in a challenging environment.

[Rar 團隊] 專注於在 2024 年提升客戶體驗，同時管理營運費用，以在充滿挑戰的環境中提供穩定的 EA 和現金流。

The successful rollout of our new point of sale system called [Rackckad] resulted in a smoother and more efficient customer journey, whether in store or online by making our co-workers more efficient in reducing manual components of their day to day responsibilities.

我們成功推出了名為 [Rackckad] 的新銷售點系統，透過讓我們的同事更有效率地減少日常職責中的手動部分，無論是在店內還是在線，客戶旅程都變得更加順暢和高效。

Behind the scenes, the team also maintained its disciplined approach to expense management, reducing labor expenses as a percentage of revenue while improving attrition rates.

在幕後，團隊也維持了嚴謹的費用管理方法，降低了勞動力費用佔收入的百分比，同時提高了員工流失率。

Our businesses delivered these results during a period in which economic and regulatory uncertainty were the norms.

我們的業務在經濟和監管不確定性盛行的時期取得了這些業績。

Overall, it really emphasized the durability and resilience of the business model to drive profitable outcomes across economic environments.

總體而言，它確實強調了商業模式的持久性和彈性，以在各種經濟環境中推動獲利成果。

When macroeconomic conditions are more cautious.

當宏觀經濟條件比較謹慎的時候。

We can tighten at one end while welcoming higher income consumers into the top of the funnel. This helps us manage at least charge us while protecting our stable base of volume.

我們可以收緊一端，同時歡迎高收入消費者進入漏斗頂端。這有助於我們至少管理收費，同時保護我們穩定的數量基礎。

And when conditions are more constructive for all consumers, we can accommodate more of them across all income levels, which helps us drive additional top line growth with margin expansion at losses within our long-term targets.

當條件對所有消費者都更加有利時，我們可以滿足更多不同收入水平的消費者的需求，這有助於我們在長期目標範圍內實現虧損的同時，透過利潤率的擴大推動額外的營收成長。

So we're excited about the opportunities ahead of us in 2025 brings the addition of Bridget.

因此，我們對 2025 年布里奇特的加入給我們帶來的機會感到非常興奮。

A business with its own impressive growth profile plus the ability to amplify the growth of Rent-A-Centerand Acima through its current lineup of products and capabilities.

該企業不僅擁有令人印象深刻的成長前景，還能夠透過其現有的產品和能力陣容來擴大 Rent-A-Center 和 Acima 的成長。

I'll remind you our Bridget colleagues officially joined Upbound when the acquisition closed on January 30th first.

我先提醒大家，我們的 Bridget 同事於 1 月 30 日收購完成後正式加入 Upbound。

And as we shared in mid-December when we announced the deal, Bridget brings a host of new digital products that will complement what we already offer our consumers.

正如我們在 12 月中旬宣布交易時所分享的那樣，Bridget 帶來了一系列新的數位產品，這些產品將補充我們已為消費者提供的產品。

Their liquidity solutions through earned wage access, credit building programs and financial literacy tools will help us improve our customers' financial health while engaging with them more frequently compared to only when they need a big ticket durable good.

他們透過獲得薪資、信用建設計劃和金融知識工具提供的流動性解決方案將幫助我們改善客戶的財務狀況，同時與客戶進行更頻繁的互動，而不是僅在他們需要大件耐用品時才進行。

One of the reasons Upbound was attracted to Bridget is our customer demographic overlap is so large, yet the actual customer overlap is so small. We're incredibly excited for that opportunity to introduce our millions of customers to the Bridget ecosystem while benefiting from the reverse energies of leveraging Bridge's capabilities to enhance our underwriting and customer acquisition strategies.

Upbound 之所以對 Bridget 感興趣，原因之一是我們的客戶群人口重疊度很大，但實際客戶重疊度卻很小。我們非常高興有機會將數百萬客戶介紹給 Bridget 生態系統，同時受益於利用 Bridge 的功能來增強我們的核保和客戶獲取策略的逆向能量。

Across 2025, we'll look forward to seeing Bridget continue to grow and run the center see executing their operating plans while testing collaboration opportunities across our brands to accelerate our growth profile. In fact, by the end of this year, we're expecting about 2/3 of adjusted EBITDA before corporate expenses.

到 2025 年，我們期待看到 Bridget 繼續發展並經營中心，執行其營運計劃，同時測試我們品牌之間的合作機會，以加速我們的成長。事實上，到今年年底，我們預計扣除公司費用前的調整後 EBITDA 將達到約 2/3。

Will come from our tech enabled channels including Acima Bridget, and Renaenter.com, and we expect that share to increase in the coming years.

將來自我們的技術支援管道，包括 Acima Bridget 和 Renaenter.com，我們預計未來幾年這一份額將會增加。

Overall, we see the business continuing to shift to a digital first platform that further aligned with consumers, with the Siemen Bridget leading the way with their virtual and mobile solutions and Rent-A-Centercontinuing to evolve to offer its customers a frictionless omnichannel experience whether in store or online.

總體而言，我們看到該業務繼續轉向數位優先平台，進一步與消費者保持一致，其中 Siemen Bridget 憑藉其虛擬和行動解決方案處於領先地位，而 Rent-A-Center 則不斷發展，為客戶提供無論是在店內還是在線的無摩擦全通路體驗。

Now before moving on to our 2025 priorities, let's go to slide 4 and recap our consolidated financial results for Q4.

現在，在討論我們的 2025 年優先事項之前，讓我們先翻到第 4 張投影片，回顧一下我們第四季的綜合財務表現。

Fourth quarter revenue of nearly $1.1 billion was a 6% increase from a year ago period, mainly driven by strength of the Acima.

第四季營收接近 11 億美元，比去年同期成長 6%，主要得益於 Acima 的強勁成長。

Upbound delivered $123 million of adjusted EBITDA, which was a list of over 14% year over year, and adjusted EBITDA margins of 11.4%, which was up 80 basis points from last year.

Upbound 的調整後 EBITDA 為 1.23 億美元，年成長超過 14%，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 11.4%，比去年同期成長了 80 個基點。

Non-GAAP diluted EPS was $1.05 which was nearly 30% higher than a year ago quarter.

非公認會計準則稀釋每股收益為 1.05 美元，比去年同期高出近 30%。

Each of these figures are within our or above the implied midpoint of guidance we provided on our last call, and in terms of consolidated lease charge-offs, we finished at 7.3% for the quarter, which was 20 basis points better relative to last year's fourth quarter or 2023's fourth quarter where the LCO rate was 7.5%. So having said that, let's move to the full year results on slide 5.

這些數字均在我們上次電話會議提供的隱含中點範圍內或之上，就合併租賃沖銷而言，本季我們的沖銷率為 7.3%，比去年第四季或 2023 年第四季的 LCO 率為 7.5% 高出 20 個基點。話雖如此，讓我們轉到第 5 張投影片上的全年業績。

For the full year, our revenue grew 8.2% to over $4.3 billion, representing the second highest on record for upbound behind fiscal year 2021, which of course benefited from stimulus in the pandemic-related pull forward in the furniture sector.

全年來看，我們的營收成長了 8.2%，達到 43 億美元以上，創下僅次於 2021 財年的第二高成長紀錄，這當然得益於疫情對家具產業帶來的刺激。

As Family will discuss though, we expect to beat 2021's record with our top line performance this year.

不過，正如家人將要討論的那樣，我們預計今年的營收表現將打破 2021 年的記錄。

Adjusted EBITDA for the year was over $473 million which was up 3.8% from the prior year.

全年調整後 EBITDA 超過 4.73 億美元，較上年成長 3.8%。

In the segment breakdown, family will discuss the drivers for Run the center last year and the tactical levers will pull it to Acima in 2025 to see more flow through it from its top line growth.

在細分市場中，家人將討論去年運作中心的驅動因素，而戰術槓桿將在 2025 年將其拉向 Acima，以從其營收成長中看到更多流量。

Consolidated lease charge-offs for the year to 7.3%, which was the same rate as I just mentioned for the fourth quarter, up slightly from fiscal year 2023, which was 7.1%. Our non-gap diluted EPS was $3.83 compared to $3.55 in 2023, an 8% improvement.

全年合併租賃沖銷率為 7.3%，與我剛才提到的第四季比率相同，略高於 2023 財年的 7.1%。我們的非差距稀釋每股收益為 3.83 美元，而 2023 年為 3.55 美元，成長了 8%。

And in line with our guidance last quarter and in line with the framework for growth that we introduced in our investor day in 2023.

這與我們上個季度的指導一致，也符合我們在 2023 年投資者日推出的成長框架。

Overall, I'm really pleased with the strong performance that our team delivered in 2024. The Rent-A-Center segment successfully navigated a number of challenges across the year between the uncertain environment for Rent-A-Center's core consumer, pressure on demand and payment behavior as inflation continued to take a toll in an evolving competitive landscape. Despite those hurdles.

總的來說，我對我們團隊在 2024 年的出色表現感到非常滿意。由於通膨在不斷變化的競爭格局中持續造成影響，Rent-A-Center 部門成功應對了全年面臨的許多挑戰，包括 Rent-A-Center 核心消費者面臨的不確定環境、需求壓力和支付行為。儘管存在這些障礙。

The entire Rent-A-Center team stayed focused and grew Adjusted EBITDA up by 5.4%. Well, simultaneously investing to advance the segment's digital capabilities going forward.

整個 Rent-A-Center 團隊保持專注，調整後 EBITDA 成長了 5.4%。嗯，同時進行投資以推進該部門未來的數位化能力。

At Acima , we introduced more merchants and more consumers to our virtual LTL platform, which enabled the segment to print its 4th consecutive quarter of double digit top line growth.

在 Acima，我們為虛擬 LTL 平台引入了更多商家和消費者，這使得該部門連續第四個季度實現兩位數的營收成長。

The Acima's revenue grew over 17% in 2024, which is really impressive when it comes off a base of nearly $2 billion in 2023.

2024 年，Acima 的營收成長了 17% 以上，考慮到 2023 年近 20 億美元的營收基礎，這一成長確實令人印象深刻。

A portion of that growth came from trade down that we saw across the year, which pressured it seem as even on margins by more than 200 basis points the first three quarters of the year when compared to the prior year. But that GAAP narrowed pretty significantly to 90 basis points in Q4.

這種成長的一部分來自於我們全年看到的貿易下滑，與去年相比，今年前三個季度的利潤率似乎下降了 200 多個基點。但第四季度，該 GAAP 大幅收窄至 90 個基點。

And we expect our 2025 margin profile to improve over 2024 to be within our low to mid-teens target.

我們預計 2025 年的利潤率狀況將比 2024 年有所改善，達到我們的低至中等水平的目標。

And that's a good segue into our priorities for 2025, so let's move to slide 6.

這很好地引出了我們 2025 年的優先事項，所以讓我們轉到第 6 張投影片。

On slide 6, let's discuss the strategic priorities that will guide our efforts this year. Acima strategic imperatives for 2025 are organized around 3 key pillars. Our merchants, our customers, and our margins.

在第 6 張投影片上，讓我們討論一下指導我們今年工作的策略重點。Acima 2025 年策略要務圍繞三大支柱展開。我們的商家、我們的客戶和我們的利潤。

For our merchants, we'll continue to expand the core LTO offering across our key verticals furniture, wheel, and tire, jewelry, and electronics.

對於我們的商家，我們將繼續擴大核心 LTO 產品在主要垂直產業（家具、車輪、輪胎、珠寶和電子產品）的供應。

That effort will be deployed across two vectors which are adding new merchants to our platform.

這項工作將透過兩個途徑展開，為我們的平台增加新的商家。

And driving more leases per merchant through compelling offers and attentive customer service.

並透過有吸引力的優惠和周到的客戶服務來增加每個商家的租賃量。

The focus on merchant growth and satisfaction has been a hallmark of the Acima since its founding, and it will be a key part of our growth strategy going forward.

自成立以來，關注商家的成長和滿意度一直是 Acima 的標誌，這也將成為我們未來成長策略的關鍵部分。

And this year we're amplifying our commitment to our customers, similar to the importance of increasing productivity with our merchants. It's equally, if not more important, to increase our repeat business with our first-time consumers.

今年，我們加強了對客戶的承諾，這與提高商家生產力的重要性相似。增加首次消費者的回頭客數量也同樣重要，甚至更為重要。

We're removing friction points for familiar customers and making upgrades to our Acima marketplace where our shoppers can find a vast assortment of leasable durable goods.

我們正在消除熟悉客戶的摩擦點，並升級我們的 Acima 市場，我們的購物者可以在那裡找到各種各樣的可租賃耐用品。

Just last month we had a Walmart, Amazon and Target as new on integrated retail options for our consumers. Pretty impressive list there. We'll also test an improved virtual lease cards so that our customers have the freedom and flexibility to shop at any online and physical location for the leasable products they need in that moment.

就在上個月，我們為消費者推出了沃爾瑪、亞馬遜和塔吉特等新的綜合零售選擇。這份名單相當令人印象深刻。我們還將測試改進的虛擬租賃卡，以便我們的客戶可以自由靈活地在任何線上和實體地點購買他們當時需要的可租賃產品。

With this new product, our customers are not limited to the roster of retailers that are our active partners, so that lineup is really robust, as with tens of thousands of locations. This technology offers them access to Acima at their fingertips at most checkout counters just by using the app.

有了這個新產品，我們的客戶不僅限於我們活躍的合作夥伴零售商名單，因此陣容非常強大，擁有數以萬計的地點。這項技術使他們只需使用應用程式即可在大多數收銀台輕鬆存取 Acima。

Whenever and wherever our customers are shopping for durable goods, the Acima will be ready to meet their needs and give them confidence to take on the products they want with the flexibility of our least own solutions.

無論何時何地，我們的客戶購買耐用品，Acima 都會隨時滿足他們的需求，並讓他們有信心透過我們最靈活的解決方案來獲得他們想要的產品。

The Acima will complement that GMV growth with a separate yet equally important commitment to customer lifetime value, product profitability, and prudent expense management.

Acima 將透過對客戶終身價值、產品盈利能力和審慎費用管理的單獨但同樣重要的承諾來補充 GMV 成長。

The trade down we've seen in the second half of 2024 helped drive a portion of the double digit GMV and top line growth, but those customers are electing the earliest purchase option more often than our traditional customers.

我們在 2024 年下半年看到的交易下降幫助推動了兩位數的 GMV 和營收成長，但這些客戶比我們的傳統客戶更頻繁地選擇最早的購買方式。

This development does have several positive implications, including the ability for men to acquire new and repeat customers for lower costs.

這項發展確實有幾個正面的影響，包括男性能夠以較低的成本獲得新客戶和回頭客。

And to grow the business at a lower loss profile.

並以較低的損失實現業務成長。

The Acima now has a new sizable cohort of customers who understand and appreciate the flexibility and value offered by the leased owned transaction.

Acima 現在擁有一群規模龐大的新客戶，他們了解並欣賞租賃交易帶來的靈活性和價值。

The Acima folks, our team will work to capitalize on these new relationships by guiding them back to our merchants through our marketplace for subsequent leases and by introducing them to the virtual lease card that I just mentioned.

Acima 的員工，我們的團隊將努力利用這些新的關係，透過我們的市場引導他們回到我們的商家進行後續租賃，並向他們介紹我剛才提到的虛擬租賃卡。

To supplement that work, the Acima team will feature to its customers a robust lineup of leasable products. We'll remain disciplined in pricing and underwriting with a hyper focus on maintaining an appropriate expense structure that produces operating leverage as we continue to grow.

為了補充這項工作，Acima 團隊將向其客戶提供強大的可租賃產品陣容。我們將在定價和承保方面保持紀律，高度重視維持適當的費用結構，以便在我們繼續成長的同時產生營運槓桿。

Our plan for 2025 calls for a step up in those margins and family will cover that in a little more detail here in a bit.

我們的 2025 年計畫要求提高這些利潤率，家庭將在稍後更詳細地介紹這一點。

Shifting over to Rent-A-Center, unlike Acima, Rent-A-Center does not directly benefit from trade down in a retailer's checkout waterfall, and it's not expanding its overall footprint to new locations. So as we tightened underwriting in the second half of the year in a response to performance indicators that put pressure on the portfolio value.

轉向 Rent-A-Center，與 Acima 不同，Rent-A-Center 不會直接從零售商結帳瀑布的交易中受益，也不會將其整體業務擴展到新的地點。因此，為了因應為投資組合價值帶來壓力的績效指標，我們在下半年就收緊了核保。

Open lease count and lease portfolio value on a same store basis are expected to be slightly lower across the first part of the year as the team monitors signs of consumer confidence and performance improvements.

由於團隊監控消費者信心和業績改善的跡象，預計今年上半年同店開放租賃數量和租賃組合價值將略有下降。

In addition to our disciplined underwriting, the recent liquidation sales across certain former competitors have also absorbed a portion of holiday demand for durable goods. We believe that most of those liquidation events are completed. It should not impact us moving into 2025.

除了我們嚴格的承保之外，最近針對某些前競爭對手的清倉銷售也吸收了部分假日耐久財需求。我們相信大部分清算事件已經完成。這不應該影響我們邁向 2025 年。

Over our years in the business, our Rent-A-Center team has handled shifting economic cycles and customer performance metrics before, and we'll do what we always do, which is adapt to the needs of our market and our consumers and shift our approach.

在我們多年的營運中，我們的 Rent-A-Center 團隊已經處理過不斷變化的經濟週期和客戶績效指標，我們會做我們一直在做的事情，即適應我們的市場和消費者的需求並改變我們的方法。

The pandemic prompted us to strengthen our online channel, and our strategy is to continue to focus on web traffic in response to consumer shopping habits. We're focused on continuing to grow the online portion of the rack business by investing in our e-commerce capabilities to streamline the fixed cost base and make Rent-A-Center more nimble across different cycles. Let me give you an example.

疫情促使我們加強線上管道，我們的策略是持續專注於網路流量以回應消費者的購物習慣。我們致力於繼續擴大貨架業務的線上部分，透過投資我們的電子商務能力來簡化固定成本基礎，並使 Rent-A-Center 在不同的週期中更加靈活。讓我給你舉個例子。

Think about the millions of customers that visit us monthly on RenoCenter.com.

想想每月造訪 RenoCenter.com 的數百萬客戶。

Our focus is to convert more of those visitors and the customers, and we're doing that by streamlining and improving the website experience, the checkout process, and the communication with the store. Working with Google.

我們的重點是轉換更多的訪客和客戶，我們透過簡化和改善網站體驗、結帳流程以及與商店的溝通來實現這一目標。與 Google 合作。

We're eliminating friction points on the customer journey and elevating the shopping experience to greater personalization and on-time offers to the right customers.

我們正在消除客戶旅程中的摩擦點，提升購物體驗，以實現更大的個人化並及時向合適的客戶提供服務。

This includes AI enabled search functionality to feature the durable goods that are the best fit for that shopper sourced from over 1,000 products on Recenter.com.

這包括支援人工智慧的搜尋功能，從Recenter.com 上的 1,000 多種產品中展示最適合購物者的耐用品。

And as our web channel grows, we're evolving our customer identity validation and underwriting tools as well to ensure responsible risk adjusted outcomes, no matter the customer acquisition channel.

隨著我們的網路管道不斷發展，我們也正在改善客戶身份驗證和核保工具，以確保無論客戶獲取管道如何，都能獲得負責任的風險調整結果。

The Rent-A-Center team is also deploying an upgraded platform for pricing and promotions which can deliver unique offers to specific customers for individual products.

Rent-A-Center 團隊也正在部署升級的定價和促銷平台，該平台可為特定客戶提供單一產品的獨特優惠。

This next level targeting will improve personalized, more relevant and actionable communications with our consumers while also helping the business manage its inventory based on real-time metrics like rental status, age, and remaining value of the product.

這種更高層次的定位將改善與消費者的個人化、更相關和更具可操作性的溝通，同時還幫助企業根據租賃狀態、年齡和產品剩餘價值等即時指標管理其庫存。

Pretty exciting stuff and the technology side at Rent-A-Center.

Rent-A-Center 的東西和技術方面相當令人興奮。

Now moving to bridge it, we previewed its priorities for 2025 when we announced the deal mid-December, and those goals haven't changed.

現在我們開始著手彌補這一差距，我們在 12 月中旬宣布協議時就預測了 2025 年的優先事項，這些目標沒有改變。

Bridget's product lineup, which I highlighted earlier, offers our shared targeted consumer, a value proposition that really resonates in this economic climate but also meets a critical market need regardless of economic conditions.

我之前強調過的 Bridget 產品系列為我們共同的目標消費者提供了一種在當前經濟環境下真正引起共鳴的價值主張，而且無論經濟狀況如何都能滿足關鍵的市場需求。

The Bridget leadership team will look to extend their growth curve in 2025 by introducing those products to new consumers, including consumers who have interacted with the Acima Rent-A-Center

Bridget 領導團隊將尋求在 2025 年延長其成長曲線，透過向新消費者（包括與 Acima Rent-A-Center 有互動的消費者）推出這些產品

Bridge's planned for this year also includes testing and learning of new digital products and services in the financial health space.

Bridge 今年的計劃還包括測試和學習金融健康領域的新數位產品和服務。

We'll have more fulsome updates on those initiatives as we move across the year, and as a reminder, Bridge's co-founders Zubin Matthews and Hamel Kotari will continue to lead the team's efforts just as they have since the company's inception.

隨著時間的推移，我們將對這些舉措進行更全面的更新，同時提醒大家，Bridge 的聯合創始人 Zubin Matthews 和 Hamel Kotari 將繼續領導團隊的努力，就像公司成立以來一樣。

And with such strong leadership across all three of our major segments, I'm very confident we'll be able to achieve the goals I've outlined here and that our combined business will create meaningful value for our customers and for our stakeholders in 2025.

憑藉我們三大主要部門的強大領導力，我非常有信心我們能夠實現我在這裡概述的目標，並且我們的合併業務將在 2025 年為我們的客戶和利益相關者創造有意義的價值。

Of course all of these goals are a team effort. I feel so privileged to work with what I know is the best team in our industry, and each day our colleagues and co-workers across North America take immense pride in helping our customers lead better lives with our innovative and flexible financial solutions, and I'd like to thank them for their passion and their dedication to the upbound business and to the financially underserved community.

當然，所有這些目標都是團隊努力的成果。我很榮幸能與我所知的業內最佳團隊共事，每天我們在北美各地的同事和同事都為能夠透過我們創新靈活的金融解決方案幫助客戶過上更好的生活而感到無比自豪，我要感謝他們對業務上行和金融服務不足社區的熱情和奉獻精神。

And with that, I'll hand it over to Fay.

說完這些，我就把它交給 Fay。

Thank you, Mitch, and good morning everyone. I'd like to start by expressing my gratitude to the board for their confidence in me and for giving me the honour to serve as Upbound's next CEO.

謝謝你，米奇，大家早安。首先，我要感謝董事會對我的信任，並給予我擔任 Upbound 下一任執行長的榮譽。

I'd also like to thank Mitch for his incredible mentorship over the past 2.5 years and for his invaluable contribution and commitment to Upbound.

我還要感謝 Mitch 在過去 2.5 年裡提供的出色指導以及他對 Upbound 的寶貴貢獻和承諾。

Thanks to Mitch's leadership, our company has continued to evolve with our consumers and achieve sustained, profitable growth, strong cash flow generation, and driven value for our shareholders.

在米奇的領導下，我們公司繼續與消費者一起發展，實現持續的獲利成長、強勁的現金流創造以及為股東創造價值。

Over the past 2 years, we have made incredible progress in executing our growth strategy.

在過去的兩年裡，我們在執行成長策略方面取得了令人難以置信的進展。

Our performance has positioned us as a differentiated leader in delivering technology-driven financial solutions with room to profitably grow our platform with new products and services.

我們的業績使我們成為提供技術驅動型金融解決方案的差異化領導者，並且我們擁有透過新產品和服務實現平台獲利成長的空間。

This is an exciting time for Upbound. Our business is growing, and we have the right strategy and team in place. As CEO, together with our incredibly talented and dedicated team across the company, we will build upon our strong foundation and accelerate our core mission to expand financial inclusion.

對於 Upbound 來說，這是一個令人興奮的時刻。我們的業務正在成長，我們擁有正確的策略和團隊。作為首席執行官，我們將與公司上下才華橫溢、敬業奉獻的團隊一起，鞏固我們的基礎，並加快我們擴大金融包容性的核心使命。

I look forward to working closely with Mitch over the next few months to ensure a smooth transition.

我期待在接下來的幾個月與米奇密切合作，以確保順利過渡。

Let's now turn to a review of the segment results and then discuss our outlook for fiscal 2025, after which we will take some questions.

現在讓我們回顧一下各部門的業績，然後討論一下我們對 2025 財年的展望，之後我們會回答一些問題。

Acima recorded a Q4 GMV growth of 15.3% year over year above our expectations and especially impressive coming off 19% growth in the same quarter of 2023, resulting in over 34% GMV growth on a stacked two-year basis.

Acima 第四季 GMV 年成長 15.3%，超出我們的預期，尤其令人印象深刻的是，2023 年同期的 GMV 成長率為 19%，兩年累積 GMV 成長率超過 34%。

GMV this quarter was the highest it's been since we added a Acima for 4 years ago, and it was driven by the highest number of applications in a quarter, which were up 19% year over year.

本季度的 GMV 是我們四年前添加 Acima 以來的最高值，這是由本季度最高的申請數量推動的，申請數量同比增長了 19%。

Similar to the 3rd quarter, the growth was approximately a 70-30 split between new merchants and higher productivity from our existing merchant relationships.

與第三季類似，新商家的成長和現有商家關係帶來的更高生產力之間的比例約為 70-30。

And with the Acima Salesforce registering hundreds of new merchant signups each month, we've achieved all-time highs for total locations and active locations.

而且，隨著 Acima Salesforce 每月登記數百個新商家註冊，我們的門市總數和活躍門市數量都創下了歷史新高。

In addition to our merchant diversification that Mitch mentioned, our largest product category, furniture, only represented approximately 43% of rental revenue in the fourth quarter.

除了米奇提到的商家多元化之外，我們最大的產品類別家具在第四季僅佔租賃收入的約 43%。

The combination of adding new locations plus trade down resulted in the Acima transacting with nearly a million new customers in 2024, while our Acima direct to consumer marketplace grew nearly 60% from the fourth quarter of 2023.

增加新門市和降價促銷相結合，使得 Acima 在 2024 年與近百萬新客戶進行了交易，而我們的 Acima 直接面向消費者市場較 2023 年第四季度增長了近 60%。

Acima revenues grew 14.4% year over year, which was the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, and adjusted IBADA was up nearly 8% from a year ago.

Acima 營收年增 14.4%，這是連續第四個季度實現兩位數成長，調整後的 IBADA 年比成長近 8%。

EBITDA margins were down 90 basis points from Q4 of 2023. However, we're up 60 basis points sequentially.

EBITDA 利潤率較 2023 年第四季下降 90 個基點。然而，我們連續上漲了 60 個基點。

Rent-A-Centeras we discussed on our last call, trade down has impacted near-term margins at Acima, but it offers two important benefits. First, it introduces new customers to Acima and drives repeat business for us at a low cost of acquisition as more and more consumers understand the benefits of the LTO transaction.

Rent-A-Center正如我們在上次電話會議上討論的那樣，降價已經影響了 Acima 的近期利潤率，但它帶來了兩個重要的好處。首先，隨著越來越多的消費者了解 LTO 交易的好處，它為 Acima 引入了新客戶，並以較低的收購成本為我們帶來了回頭客業務。

It also helps us balance the risk profile of our consumer base, which allows us to lower lease charge-offs. Our loss rate of 9% for the fourth quarter was down 90 basis points year over year and 20 basis points sequentially.

它還幫助我們平衡消費者群體的風險狀況，從而降低租賃沖銷。我們第四季的損失率為 9%，年減 90 個基點，較上季下降 20 個基點。

Let's move to the Rent-A-Center results starting on page 8.

讓我們從第 8 頁開始查看 Rent-A-Center 的結果。

Ben Center's results included the impact of approximately 110 stores that were franchised or consolidated and to a more limited extent, the impacts of Hurricane Helene and Milton, which hit the southeastern US early in the quarter.

Ben Center 的業績包括了約 110 家特許經營或合併門市的影響，以及在本季度初襲擊美國東南部的颶風海倫和米爾頓的影響（但影響程度較有限）。

Due to the footprint optimization effort, Rent-A-Center finished the quarter with 111 locations fewer than year-end 2023.

由於足跡優化工作，Rent-A-Center 本季的門市數量比 2023 年底減少了 111 家。

Same source sales were relatively flat in the 4th quarter, and the percentage of revenue from the web channel increased approximately 70 basis points in the quarter compared to the 4th quarter of 2023.

第四季同源銷售額相對持平，與 2023 年第四季相比，本季來自網路通路的收入百分比增加了約 70 個基點。

In terms of product category performance, furniture and appliances represent almost 70% of the product mix with some softness and demand for consumer electronics relative to the year ago period.

從產品類別表現來看，家具和家電佔產品組合的近70%，與去年同期相比，消費性電子產品的需求已疲軟。

Rent-A-Center's revenue was down approximately $15 million year over year, mostly driven by the franchising sale and the lower store count.

Rent-A-Center 的營收年減約 1,500 萬美元，主要原因是特許經營權出售和門市數量減少。

However, adjusted EBITDA was up over $8 million in part due to the reductions in operating expenses, including labor and occupancy expenses, and the benefit from the disposition of older fleet inventory.

然而，調整後的 EBITDA 增加了 800 多萬美元，部分原因是營運費用（包括勞動力和占用費用）的減少，以及舊車隊庫存處置帶來的收益。

In addition to these fleet savings that will reverse next year with new higher priced vehicles coming online, the quarter also benefited from expenses related to workers' comp and other store level initiatives that are not expected to recur in 2025.

除了這些車隊節省的費用（隨著明年新的高價車輛上線而將逆轉）之外，本季度還受益於與工人補償和其他商店層面計劃相關的費用，預計這些費用在 2025 年不會再次出現。

Beni Center's loss rate in the quarter finished at 5%, which was up 80 basis points from 2023, but as forecasted relatively flat sequentially.

貝尼中心本季的虧損率為 5%，較 2023 年上漲了 80 個基點，但正如預測的那樣，與上一季相比持平。

As Mitch mentioned earlier, we took prudent actions in the latter part of the 3rd quarter to protect our portfolio and to respond to pressure on early performance indicators.

正如 Mitch 之前提到的，我們在第三季後半段採取了審慎的行動，以保護我們的投資組合併應對早期績效指標的壓力。

As conditions change, our decisioning will adjust, and we'll be ready to responsibly support our consumers' needs across the year if the environment improves.

隨著條件的變化，我們的決策也會進行調整，如果環境改善，我們將準備好全年負責任地滿足消費者的需求。

Let's cover our liquidity and capital allocation policies on slide 9.

讓我們在第 9 張投影片上介紹我們的流動性和資本配置政策。

Our business has a proven and long track record of delivering strong adjusted EBITDA free cash flow conversion year after year, including generating nearly $150 million of free cash flow in 2023.

我們的業務擁有多年實現強勁調整後 EBITDA 自由現金流轉換的良好記錄，包括在 2023 年產生近 1.5 億美元的自由現金流。

In 2024, our higher earnings and accelerating growth at Acima meant higher cash tax payments and a ramp up in networking capital, resulting in free cash flow of approximately $50 million in 2024.

2024 年，Acima 的獲利增加和成長加速意味著現金稅額增加和網路資本增加，使 2024 年的自由現金流達到約 5,000 萬美元。

Even as the earnings and associated tax burden increases in 2025, our networking capital investment should moderate, delivering free cash flow more aligned to historical levels.

即使 2025 年收益和相關稅負增加，我們的網路資本投資也應該會適度，從而提供更符合歷史水平的自由現金流。

At year end, our liquidity was $489 million between our cash on hand and revolver availability, and as planned, we leveraged a portion of that liquidity in January to address the upfront consideration for the bridge acquisition.

截至年底，我們的現金和可用循環信貸額度之間的流動資金為 4.89 億美元，並且按照計劃，我們在 1 月份利用了部分流動資金來解決過橋收購的前期對價。

As we've said in the past, our capital allocation priorities are to reinvest in the business, support the dividend, deliver, pursue strategic M&A, and execute opportunistic share buybacks.

正如我們過去所說，我們的資本配置重點是再投資於業務、支持股息、交付、進行策略併購以及執行機會性股票回購。

In 2024, our investments in the business included approximately $56 million of CapEx, of which about half supported Rent-A-Center's customer, store, and digital transformation initiatives.

2024 年，我們對該業務的投資包括約 5,600 萬美元的資本支出，其中約一半用於支援 Rent-A-Center 的客戶、商店和數位轉型計畫。

And even with the change in Upbound's near term ABL availability post the Bridget acquisition, the company's resources were more than sufficient to confidently raise the dividend by over 5% and maintain our strong dividend yield.

即使在收購 Bridget 後 Upbound 的短期 ABL 可用性發生變化，該公司的資源仍足以自信地將股息提高 5% 以上，並維持強勁的股息殖利率。

As for leverage, our net leverage ratio was approximately 2.7 times at year end and moved to about 3 times when the Bridget deal closed.

至於槓桿率，我們的淨槓桿率在年底約為 2.7 倍，而在 Bridget 交易結束時升至約 3 倍。

With higher free cash flow and EBITDA growth expected in 2025 and a consistent focus on deleveraging, we're reaffirming our commitment to achieving a leverage ratio at or under 2 times.

預計 2025 年自由現金流和 EBITDA 成長將會增加，我們將繼續關注去槓桿化，我們重申致力於將槓桿率控制在 2 倍或以下的承諾。

The speed of reaching 2 times will largely depend on a seamless growth as we maintain discipline and underwriting and expense management to support margins.

達到 2 倍的速度很大程度上取決於我們能否實現無縫成長，因為我們要保持紀律、核保和費用管理以支持利潤率。

Post the Brigit acquisition, we do not currently have any near term plans for M&A, but our capital structure is flexible and we'll be ready if the right combination of value and strategic fit arises.

收購 Brigit 之後，我們目前還沒有任何近期併購計劃，但我們的資本結構靈活，如果出現正確的價值和策略契合度組合，我們將做好準備。

Let's shift over to our financial outlook.

讓我們轉向討論財務前景。

The near to midterm horizon will be characterized by shifting domestic policies, realignment of traditional geopolitical relationships, uneven macro factors, and disruptive advancements like generative AI.

近期至中期將出現國內政策轉變、傳統地緣政治關係重新調整、宏觀因素不平衡、產生人工智慧等顛覆性進步等特徵。

And while these new variables may emerge, this outlook assumes a stable backdrop consistent with current conditions, with a tight credit environment maintaining current levels of trade down and pressure on durable goods demand, especially in furniture that's still recovering, and we expect to remain under pressure in 2025, albeit a little less than in 2024.

儘管這些新的變數可能會出現，但這一展望假設了與當前條件一致的穩定背景，緊縮的信貸環境維持當前的貿易水平並給耐用品需求帶來壓力，尤其是仍在復甦的家具，我們預計 2025 年仍將面臨壓力，儘管比 2024 年略有減輕。

At Acima, we expect continued growth and opportunity with GMV and revenue both up high single digits to low double digits. Adjusted EBITDA margins should improve from the prior year with movement towards the mid-teens area.

在 Acima，我們預計 GMV 和收入將繼續保持成長和機會，都將實現高個位數至低兩位數的成長。調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率應會較上年有所提高，並接近十幾歲的水平。

At Rent-A-Center, we expect revenue to be down in the low single digit range due to the sale and consolidation of approximately 110 stores that I mentioned earlier.

在 Rent-A-Center，由於我之前提到的約 110 家門市的出售和合併，我們預計收入將下降至個位數以下。

We expect adjusted EBITDA margins to be in the mid-teens area, decreasing year over year to go higher operating expenses as a percentage of revenue.

我們預計調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率將處於十幾個百分點點左右，年減，但營運費用佔收入的百分比會上升。

2024 benefited from several expense initiatives throughout the year, some of which will not occur again in 2025, especially in the second half of the year, resulting in a normalization of the ratio of operating expenses, less losses to revenue.

2024年受益於全年的幾項費用舉措，其中一些舉措在2025年不會再次發生，特別是在下半年，導致營運費用比率正常化，收入損失減少。

The Rent-A-Center leadership team will be working across the year to accelerate the pace of the digital impacts to realize more operating leverage in the business and create further margin enhancing opportunities going forward.

Rent-A-Center 領導團隊將在全年努力加快數位化影響的步伐，以實現更多的業務營運槓桿，並在未來創造進一步提高利潤率的機會。

For Bridget, we're reiterating our guidance from December, which is revenue in the $215 million to $230 million range and adjusted I on the $25 million to $30 million range.

對於布里奇特，我們重申 12 月的指導意見，即收入在 2.15 億美元至 2.3 億美元之間，調整後 I 在 2500 萬美元至 3000 萬美元之間。

Due to closing on January 30, we'll pick up 11/12 of that performance in our consolidated results for 2025.

由於將於 1 月 30 日結束，我們將在 2025 年的綜合業績中獲得該業績的 11/12。

Our integration plan for Bridget is intentionally light touch, and we are aligned with strong incentives to collaborate for enterprise-wide benefits.

我們針對 Bridget 的整合計劃是有意採取輕鬆的方式，並且我們以強有力的激勵措施進行合作，以實現整個企業的利益。

We plan to focus on continued R&D initiatives, marketing efforts to increase paying subscribers, and increasing retention rates, all targeted to achieving a step change in performance for 2026.

我們計劃專注於持續的研發計劃、增加付費用戶的行銷工作以及提高留存率，所有這些都旨在實現 2026 年業績的重大轉變。

At the upbound level, our corporate costs should be flat on a dollar basis to 2024, and we're modeling one interest rate reduction in September.

在上升層面，到 2024 年，我們的企業成本應該以美元為基礎保持平穩，並且我們預計 9 月將進行一次降息。

We expect the tax rate to be consistent with 2024 at approximately 26% and steady across the quarters, with an average diluted share count for the year of approximately $58.9 million shares, which includes approximately $2.7 million shares related to the Bridget acquisition.

我們預計稅率將與 2024 年保持一致，約為 26%，並在各個季度保持穩定，全年平均稀釋股數約為 5,890 萬股，其中包括與 Bridget 收購相關的約 270 萬股。

Taken together, our outlook for 2025 includes a revenue range of $4.5 billion to $4.75 billion an adjusted EBITDA range of $500 million to $540 million fully diluted non-gap earnings per share of $3.90 to $4.40 and free cash flow ranging from $150 million to $200 million.

綜合起來，我們對 2025 年的展望包括：收入範圍為 45 億美元至 47.5 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 範圍為 5 億美元至 5.4 億美元，每股完全稀釋非差距收益為 3.90 美元至 4.40 美元，自由現金流範圍為 1.5 億美元至 2 億美元。

We're also pleased to share our preliminary thoughts on the 1st quarter, which is off to a busy start as each of our segments navigate seasonal and macro factors, including the start of tax season and extreme weather in some key geographies.

我們也很高興分享我們對第一季的初步想法，第一季開局繁忙，因為我們的每個部門都要應對季節性和宏觀因素，包括稅收季節的開始和一些主要地區的極端天氣。

Based on what we've seen to this point, we expect consolidated revenue to be up mid-single digits year over year with continued momentum at Acima and the addition of Bridget offsetting mid-single digit step back at Rent-A-Center for the reasons we outlined earlier.

根據我們目前所看到的情況，我們預計合併收入將同比增長中等個位數，Acima 將繼續保持增長勢頭，而 Bridget 的加入將抵消 Rent-A-Center 中等個位數的下滑，原因我們之前已經概述過。

Our least charge off metrics are stable to improving, demonstrating that our proactive risk management strategies continue to be effective.

我們的最低沖銷指標穩定改善，顯示我們的主動風險管理策略持續有效。

Adjusted Ibadan margins on a consolidated basis are expected to be up slightly, with the pressure on the Rent-A-Center's margins being offset by margin improvements at Acima plus Bridget's contribution.

預計合併後伊巴丹的調整後利潤率將略有上升，而 Rent-A-Center 利潤率的壓力將被 Acima 的利潤率提高和 Bridget 的貢獻所抵消。

After accounting for the Bridget-related adjustments to interest expense and share count, we expect non-GAP EPS to range from $0.90 to $1 compared to $0.79 a year ago.

在考慮與 Bridget 相關的利息費用和股票數量調整後，我們預計非 GAP 每股盈餘將在 0.90 美元至 1 美元之間，而去年同期為 0.79 美元。

Note that Bridget's contribution in the 1st quarter will include February and March only, and that Bridget's cash advance losses are not included in our lease charge-off metric, which measures performance of leased transactions.

請注意，Bridget 在第一季的貢獻僅包括 2 月和 3 月，且 Bridget 的現金預付損失不包括在我們的租賃沖銷指標中，該指標衡量租賃交易的表現。

At the segment level, rent a center losses for the 1st quarter should be relatively flat to the period a year ago and a slight improvement from the 4th quarter.

從細分市場來看，第一季租賃中心的虧損應該與去年同期持平，與第四季相比略有改善。

EBITDA margins are expected to be in the mid-teens and below the prior year.

EBITDA 利潤率預計為十五六個百分點，低於上年水準。

Acima losses should be in the 9% area, improving from the 9.6% in the first quarter of 2024.

Acima 的虧損應在 9% 左右，較 2024 年第一季的 9.6% 有所改善。

As EBITDA margins are expected to improve year over year and be seasonally low compared to our overall annual target of low to mid-teens range.

由於 EBITDA 利潤率預計會逐年提高，並且與我們年度總體目標（低至中等水平）相比，會出現季節性低位。

As we wrap up on slide 11, I'd like to emphasize a couple of the points that Mitch mentioned earlier.

當我們結束第 11 張投影片時，我想強調 Mitch 之前提到的幾點。

In 2024 we made substantial progress on our key strategic priorities for our customers, we've always supported them with the accessibility and flexibility of the lease to own model.

2024 年，我們在為客戶實現的關鍵策略重點方面取得了實質進展，我們始終以租賃自有模式的可近性和靈活性為他們提供支援。

And now with Bridget, we've added digital financial health products and capabilities.

現在有了 Bridget，我們增加了數位金融健康產品和功能。

Bridget's EWA and credit building tools will help our customers improve their financial situation while simultaneously helping us become more relevant more often when our consumers need us the most.

Bridget 的 EWA 和信用建立工具將幫助我們的客戶改善他們的財務狀況，同時幫助我們在消費者最需要我們的時候更頻繁地變得更加相關。

Our consumers' needs and expectations are always evolving, and they count on us to help them lead better financial lives.

我們的消費者的需求和期望總是不斷發展，他們指望我們幫助他們過更好的財務生活。

We'll continue to bring the relevant solutions to reinforce our relationship and our commitment to the underserved consumer.

我們將繼續提供相關解決方案，以加強我們與服務不足的消費者之間的關係和承諾。

For our stakeholders, we remain committed to creating long-term sustainable value by building a strong foundation, allocating capital thoughtfully and growing responsibly.

對於我們的利害關係人，我們始終致力於透過建立堅實的基礎、合理地分配資本和負責任地發展來創造長期可持續的價值。

We delivered on those goals across the year as we extended and repriced our debts back, raised our dividend, and grew revenue, EBITDA and EPS while managing risk in a volatile environment.

我們全年實現了這些目標，因為我們延長並重新定價了債務，提高了股息，增加了收入、EBITDA 和 EPS，同時在動蕩的環境中管理了風險。

We look forward to delivering on our goals again in 2025 and continuing the strong momentum we've built across our brands.

我們期待在 2025 年再次實現我們的目標，並延續我們在各個品牌中建立的強勁勢頭。

Thank you for your time this morning, operator, you may now open the line for questions.

接線員，感謝您今天上午抽出時間，現在您可以打開熱線來回答問題了。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

Bobby Griffin, Raymond James

鮑比·格里芬、雷蒙德·詹姆斯

Good morning, everybody. Thanks for taking the questions. And, Mitch, con congrats on the retirement. It's been great working with you over the years. I've learned a lot and Sammy, congrats on the new role.

大家早安。感謝您回答這些問題。米奇，恭喜你退休。多年來與您合作非常愉快。我學到了很多東西，Sammy，祝賀你獲得新的角色。

Thanks Bobby. Yeah, thanks Bobby. I appreciate it.

謝謝鮑比。是的，謝謝 Bobby。我很感激。

I guess first I want to start at maybe a high level and can you talk a little bit about your view of your core customer where they sit today versus a couple of months ago, obviously the low end consumer's been under pressure.

我想先從高層次開始，您能否談談您對核心客戶的看法，與幾個月前相比，他們現在的情況如何，顯然低端消費者一直承受著壓力。

It looked like it stabilized a little and then we kind of saw some comments out of you guys as well. As one of your peers and some fighting in the fourth quarter and maybe even some in 25. So just how do you view the consumer now heading into 25, kind of how you're approaching managing that risk and any details there to help us think about what's going on from the core business customer?

看起來它有點穩定了，然後我們也看到了你們的一些評論。作為你的同齡人之一，有些人在第四節戰鬥，甚至有些人在 25 節戰鬥。那麼，您如何看待現在即將進入 25 歲的消費者，您如何處理這種風險，以及任何可以幫助我們思考核心業務客戶狀況的細節？

Sure, Bobby, this Mitch, I'll start and then Fahmi karam can weigh in.

當然，Bobby，這個 Mitch，我先開始，然後 Fahmi karam 可以加入。

The A little different when we think about a Acima and we have had to tighten in both cases last year we've, we tightened.

當我們考慮 Acima 時，情況略有不同，去年我們必須在兩種情況下都收緊，我們已經收緊了。

Acima with the benefit of trade down though is that you see their numbers as far as growth where we can tighten at the bottom and that the trade down is helping quite a bit and You see the losses coming down. Delinquency's in really good shape, and so forth.

Acima 的降價貿易優勢在於，您可以看到他們的數字正在增長，我們可以在底部收緊，降價貿易有很大幫助，您可以看到損失正在下降。犯罪情況確實很好，等等。

So, I think that the trade down at Acima is offsetting the tightening we had to do at the bottom. I don't think that. I know that just from looking at the looking at our internal numbers and the delinquency rates of new customers versus the core customers and so forth.

因此，我認為 Acima 的交易下滑抵消了我們在底部必須採取的緊縮措施。我不這麼認為。我知道，只要查看我們的內部數據以及新客戶與核心客戶的拖欠率等等，就能知道這一點。

So, we've really tightened down the bottom and they're getting the benefit of trade down. Rent-A-Center we've had to tighten at the bottom. Also, as I mentioned in my prepared comments, they don't get the benefit quite as quickly or as directly as the Acima does on trade down because they're not in a retail waterfall. So Rent-A-Center, that's same source sales.

因此，我們確實收緊了底線，他們也獲得了貿易下降的好處。Rent-A-Center 我們必須在底部收緊。此外，正如我在準備好的評論中提到的那樣，他們沒有像 Acima 那樣快速或直接地從降價交易中獲得利益，因為他們不在零售瀑布中。因此，Rent-A-Center 屬於同一來源銷售。

Was strong based on based on the environment for the year at 1.5%, but it was flat in the fourth quarter, so it's decelerating a little bit primarily because we've had to tighten the tighten at the bottom and they're not getting all the benefit of trade down the way an as Acima does so.

基於全年環境來看，成長率為 1.5%，表現強勁，但第四季度持平，因此增速略有放緩，主要是因為我們不得不收緊底部，而他們並沒有像 Acima 那樣獲得貿易的所有好處。

Our growth vehicle the see is in great shape because of the trade down or the trade down is certainly helping and Rent-A-Centercertainly, even being flat on same store sales is a pretty darn good job in this environment, with still strong mid-team EBITDA margins as we think about next year,

我們的成長工具看起來狀態很好，因為降價或降價肯定有幫助，而 Rent-A-Center 即使在這種環境下同店銷售額持平也是一件相當不錯的工作，考慮到明年，中期團隊的 EBITDA 利潤率仍然很高，

So, Overall, you've heard me say it before too, Bobby. I mean, our core customers kind of always under pressure other than the stimulus time, maybe in 2021. So, it's a long way of saying the trade down is really helping offset the struggle at the at the what you might call the core customer.

所以，總的來說，你以前也聽過我這麼說，鮑比。我的意思是，除了刺激時期（也許在 2021 年）之外，我們的核心客戶總是承受著壓力。因此，從長遠來看，降價確實有助於抵消所謂的核心客戶的困境。

Okay.

好的。

Maybe just to add to that just a little bit, I think the core customers, as Mitch said, is still under pressure, so our posture from an underwriting standpoint is still, I would say on the on the conservative side and the dynamics that Mitch just laid out between the two major segments and you can see it in the results.

也許只是稍微補充一點，我認為核心客戶，正如米奇所說，仍然面臨壓力，所以從承保的角度來看，我們的立場仍然是保守的，米奇剛剛在兩個主要部門之間闡述了動態，你可以在結果中看到它。

Acima is still growing at a very nice clip. 15% in the fourth quarter coming off a big copier the year before and 17% for the year while also reducing its loss rate. So you can see that impact of us tightening some of that trade down with Granit tenor, losses were relatively.

Acima 仍在以非常快的速度成長。去年第四季度，由於使用大型影印機，其利潤率成長了 15%，今年的利潤率成長了 17%，同時也降低了虧損率。因此，您可以看到，我們透過 Granit 期限收緊部分交易的影響，損失相對較小。

Flat sequentially, but the portfolio had some pressure in the 4th quarter, and that has an impact on margins, as we said in the 4th quarter as well as going into 2025. But generally speaking, we're taking a cautious approach given where the consumer is and where the Macro is.

與上一季持平，但投資組合在第四季度面臨一些壓力，這對利潤率產生了影響，正如我們在第四季度以及進入 2025 年時所說的那樣。但總的來說，考慮到消費者的現狀和宏觀的現狀，我們採取了謹慎的態度。

Okay, I appreciate that.

好的，我很感激。

And I guess secondly for me, I mean, maybe we dive into one of the strategic priorities? I think it's on slide 6 you guys referenced on the theme of business improving margins, understand that some of the dynamics between early buyouts a little out of your control back to that trade down aspect.

其次，對我來說，也許我們應該深入探討某個策略重點？我認為你們在第 6 張投影片上提到了企業提高利潤率的主題，要知道，早期收購之間的一些動態有點超出你們的控制範圍，回到交易下降的方面。

But If you could maybe highlight a couple of things that you believe are in your control that you can, what's going to get worked on this year, dive into that a little bit, the timing of it, just anything there to help us understand the variables that you feel are opportunities within the team's control from an improvement on even flow through and margin structure of that benefit or that segment excuse me.

但是，如果您可以強調幾件您認為可以控制的事情，那麼今年將要開展哪些工作，請深入探討一下，包括時間安排，任何可以幫助我們了解變量的事情，您認為這些變量是團隊可以控制的機會，可以通過改善該福利或該部分的流量和利潤結構來實現，對不起。

Yeah, thanks Bobby. Yeah, I think you've started to see a little bit of that, the flow through happening between Q3 and Q4 of 2024. We said there was going to be a delay in timing and we started to see the impact of that in the fourth quarter, going into 2025 for Seema, the guide was improved margins as you noted on the page. Generally speaking from a P&L standpoint.

是的，謝謝 Bobby。是的，我認為你已經開始看到一些這樣的情況，即 2024 年第三季和第四季之間發生的流動。我們說過時間安排會有所延遲，我們開始在第四季度看到其影響，對於 Seema 來說，進入 2025 年，指南將提高利潤率，正如您在頁面上指出的那樣。一般來說，從損益的角度來看。

I would say gross profit for the year we think is going to be relatively flat year over year and where you're going to see the benefit and margin improvements is around losses, which obviously we have control over. We just talked about some of the underwriting posture that we're in. And then obviously some scale and operating leverage on the expense side.

我想說，我們認為今年的毛利將與去年同期相比相對持平，而您將看到的收益和利潤率的提高是在虧損方面，這顯然是我們可以控制的。我們剛剛討論了我們所處的一些承保態勢。然後顯然在費用方面有一些規模和經營槓桿。

So, as we go into 2025, my expectation is for gross profit to be relatively flat, gross profit percentage to be relatively flat, losses coming down, and then some leverage on expenses. In the first quarter, our estimate based on, kind of the tax season where it's starting, signs of strength there plus the trade down, my assumption is that gross profit margin will actually be lower, but we're going to offset that with better losses and better expenses to be up quarter over quarter at a Acima.

因此，當我們進入 2025 年時，我預計毛利將相對平穩，毛利率將相對平穩，虧損將下降，然後在費用上有一定的槓桿作用。在第一季度，我們根據即將開始的稅收季節、那裡的強勁跡像以及貿易下滑做出估計，我的假設是毛利率實際上會更低，但我們將通過更好的虧損和更好的支出來抵消這一影響，從而使 Acima 的季度環比增長。

Yeah, add to that, Acima, when you look at, and I think you touched on it, when you think about the 60 basis point improvement in the fourth quarter, we're already starting to see it like we've talked about. When you look at the last two years, 23 and 24, other than the way the second quarter bounces back from the first quarter because the first quarters always lower with all the extra payouts of the tax returns.

是的，此外，Acima，當您看到，我想您已經提到了這一點，當您想到第四季度 60 個基點的改善時，我們已經開始看到它，就像我們所談論的那樣。當你回顧過去兩年，23 年和 24 年，除了第二季度從第一季反彈的方式之外，因為第一季總是會因退稅的所有額外支出而較低。

You look at the trends and that's the That you can see the turn just from looking between the 3rd quarter and the 4th quarter of last year, that doesn't normally happen that it goes up 60 basis points in the 4th quarter. And so I think we're already seeing the turn as well. I'd reiterate that.

你看一下趨勢，你就可以從去年第三季和第四季之間看到轉變，第四季上漲 60 個基點的情況通常不會發生。所以我認為我們已經看到了轉變。我要重申這一點。

Thank you. I appreciate the details and best of luck here in 25.

謝謝。我很感謝你提供的詳細信息，並祝你 25 歲好運。

Thanks Bobby.

謝謝鮑比。

Vincent Caintic, BTIG.

文森特凱恩蒂克（Vincent Caintic），BTIG。

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions, but first, a round of congratulations to both of you, Mitch. It's been great seeing you over the past decades to build up a center, then rescue in the center and then build up to his face so well deserved retirement fondly. It's been great seeing you as well, the past previously and well deserved on your role as CEO so congratulations to both of you.

嘿，早安。感謝您回答我的問題，但首先，我要向你們兩位表示祝賀，米奇。很高興看到你在過去幾十年裡建立了一個中心，然後在中心進行救援，然後建立他的面貌，所以當之無愧地退休。我也很高興見到你們，過去你們擔任執行長一職是當之無愧的，所以祝賀你們倆。

First question on the, so kind of a follow up on previously and on the kind of the macro environment, if you could talk about maybe how much you tightened, and where you see some of the weakness, you get a couple of detail about your applications are up 19%. You're in the sea but your GMV growth is up 15%. So I wonder if that kind of implies the level of tightening.

第一個問題，關於先前的跟進以及宏觀環境，如果您可以談談您收緊了多少，以及您認為哪些方面存在弱點，您可以獲得一些關於您的應用程式增長了 19% 的細節。雖然你身處大海，但你的 GMV 成長率卻高達 15%。所以我想知道這是否意味著緊縮的程度。

And then if you could also talk about you highlighted the furniture that makes differences between Acima and Rent-A-Center and attributed some of that to you know some of the sales differences there like how much of that has been ahead and are there other categories where you may be seeing some strength or other categories point out.

然後，如果您還可以談談您強調的家具，這些家具使得 Acima 和 Rent-A-Center 之間存在差異，並將其中一些歸因於您知道的一些銷售差異，例如其中有多少是領先的，以及在其他類別中您是否看到了一些優勢或其他類別指出的。

Yeah, Vincent, on the furniture mix, let me start with that, and then Sammy can talk about the underwriting and on the furniture mix, the great news with Acima is the diversification over the last couple of years of the different categories, with that being in the 40% range when it used to be.

是的，文森特，關於家具組合，讓我從這個開始，然後薩米可以談談承保和家具組合，Acima 的好消息是過去幾年不同類別的多樣化，這一比例在過去一直處於 40% 左右。

I don't know, 5 years ago or 4 years ago when we bought a it might have been 70 or 80%. So between wheel and tire and jewelry and even things like eyeglasses, there's been a lot of diversification there and really has taken the pressure off of a category that's pretty flat.

我不知道，5 年前或 4 年前我們買的時候，它可能是 70% 或 80%。因此，在車輪、輪胎、珠寶甚至眼鏡等產品之間，已經出現了很大的多樣化，並且確實減輕了相當平穩的類別的壓力。

So, I think that's the good news, very diversified and when furniture does come back, and it's and our drop in furniture, year over year has certainly diminished. It's not any big GAAP anymore for us. It's pretty flat and but still, having said that, I'm really glad to see the diversification of the categories.

所以，我認為這是好消息，非常多樣化，當家具確實回歸時，我們的家具銷量比去年同期下降肯定有所減少。對我們來說，這不再是任何大型 GAAP 了。它相當平坦，但話雖如此，我很高興看到類別的多樣化。

And when furniture does come back, it's still a big category, obviously 40 45%, whatever it is. It's going to certainly help us when that does come back, although we didn't. Nobody thinks 2025 is going to be a banner year for it, but maybe by 26 or something like that, so great diversification in that category and on Brenda Center.

當家具確實回歸時，它仍然是一個很大的類別，顯然佔 40% 到 45%，不管它是什麼。當它回來時它肯定會對我們有幫助，儘管我們並沒有這樣做。沒有人認為 2025 年會是它的輝煌一年，但也許到 2026 年左右，這個類別和 Brenda Center 將會實現巨大的多樣化。

Furniture is actually it's about the same percentage. Furniture. I know furniture and appliances is, close to 70%. The furniture part itself is pretty close to the Acima number as far as the percent of the business. The difference in Rent-A-Center, those are where Acima of the profitability of each product is very similar, but at Rent-A-Center, furniture and appliances are two most profitable products to rent.

家具實際上所佔比例大致相同。家具。我知道家具和電器接近 70%。就業務百分比而言，家具部分本身與 Acima 的數字非常接近。Rent-A-Center 的不同之處在於，Acima 的每種產品的獲利能力非常相似，但在 Rent-A-Center，家具和電器是兩種最賺錢的租賃產品。

As you might guess, just based on retail markups of furniture and furniture, especially compared to say electronics. So where Rent-A-Center gets that wholesale to retail markup as well, whereas Acimadoesn't, so they, the margins matter so the fact that the furniture is still a strong product for Rent-A-Center is something we want to continue to do and.

正如您可能猜到的那樣，僅基於家具和家具的零售加價，尤其是與電子產品相比。因此，Rent-A-Center 也能獲得批發到零售的加價，而 Acim 沒有，所以利潤對他們來說很重要，事實上家具仍然是 Rent-A-Center 的強項產品，這是我們想要繼續做的事情。

Because it because it really helps drive the margins. So it's a little bit about the diversification and profitability of those products and the underwriting. I'll let Fay talk about that, sure.

因為它確實有助於提高利潤率。因此，這與這些產品的多樣化和盈利能力以及承保有關。當然，我會讓 Fay 談論這個。

And maybe just a follow on the on the categories I think for on Acima all categories are up year over year in the 4th quarter as well as. For the full year, some of the, as Mitch mentioned, furniture may be still under pressure, and the team has done a great job of diversifying where that, where the GMV comes from. Some couple standouts would be the jewelry segment. We've really done well in jewelry really all year.

也許只是對類別進行跟踪，我認為對於 Acima 來說，所有類別在第四季度都同比增長。正如米奇所提到的，就全年而言，一些家具可能仍面臨壓力，而團隊在實現 GMV 來源多元化方面做得很好。有些情侶飾品的亮點在於珠寶部分。我們在珠寶方面全年都表現非常出色。

It's more of a seasonal product, so obviously really strong in the 4th quarter, as well as our wheel and tire practice. It's still a very strong growth and strong performance business for us. As far as the approval rates go, as you mentioned, after 19% in the quarter, our approval rates.

它更像是一種季節性產品，因此在第四季度顯然表現非常強勁，我們的車輪和輪胎業務也是如此。對我們來說，這仍然是一個成長非常強勁、業績強勁的業務。就批准率而言，正如您所說，本季度的批准率達到了 19%。

I would say were relatively flat year over year. When I look at 2024 in total, apps were up 26% in total, and the approval rates were down about 70 or so basis points for the year. But if you think about underwriting or managing a portfolio, you always have to break it down into its components, whether it's, new returning customers by channel, whether it's brick and mortar, e-com or our staff business or by product category.

我想說的是，與去年同期相比，情況相對穩定。當我回顧 2024 年全年時，我發現申請總數上漲了 26%，而全年批准率卻下降了約 70 個基點。但是，如果您考慮承保或管理投資組合，您始終必須將其分解成各個組成部分，無論是按通路劃分的新回頭客，還是按實體店、電子商務或我們的員工業務或按產品類別劃分。

So I would say generally speaking, year over year we had higher approval rates in less risky segments and our less risky categories like furniture, approval rates. For furniture are actually up year over year, but everything else was down in our more risky segments when you compare it to electronics or jewelry and really same with new versus returning consumers.

因此我想說，總體而言，與去年相比，我們在風險較低的領域的批准率更高，而且在風險較低的類別（如家具）的批准率也更高。家具的價格實際上逐年上漲，但與電子產品或珠寶相比，在我們風險更高的領域，其他所有東西的價格都在下降，新消費者和回頭客的價格也確實如此。

Generally speaking, new consumers have a higher loss profile than returning consumers, and so our approval rates. A match that, approval rates on new customers given the trade down is down year over year and for returning customers it's slightly up.

一般來說，新消費者的損失率高於回頭客，我們的批准率也是如此。與此相符的是，由於交易減少，新客戶的認可率較去年同期下降，而回頭客的認可率略有上升。

So, as with everything underwriting and managers of risk, it's a pretty dynamic process that we go through and our job is to find pockets of risk and also pockets of opportunity and really balance out the mix between growth, losses, and profitability. The team has done a really great job of balancing that while still growing Acima at 17% for the year.

因此，與所有核保和風險管理一樣，我們經歷的是一個非常動態的過程，我們的工作是找到風險和機會，並真正平衡成長、損失和獲利能力之間的組合。該團隊在平衡這一問題上做得非常出色，同時 Acima 今年的成長率仍達到 17%。

Yeah, a couple of things I'd add to that on the underwriting, Vincent, as Fahmi, mentioned, the approval rates are pretty flat, but when you look inside of them. They're, there are a lot of people think, well, if you have to tighten at the bottom at the top, it must, there's not much room to gain anything back at the top because you must be approving anybody, everybody anyhow at the top, and that's not necessarily the case.

是的，關於承保我想補充幾點，文森特，正如法赫米所提到的，批准率相當穩定，但是當你深入了解的時候。很多人認為，如果必須在頂部收緊底部，那麼頂部就沒有太大的空間可以獲得任何回報，因為你必須批准頂部的任何人、每個人，但事實並非如此。

So, you can weigh in more at the top with the with the approval rate to offset the tightening at the bottom because It's not like you're starting at 100% approval even at the top end of the spectrum when it comes to the approval. So that's kind of an offset inside that.

因此，您可以透過增加頂層的支持率來抵消底層的緊縮，因為就支持率而言，即使是在最高層，您也不可能一開始就獲得 100% 的支持。這是一種內部偏移。

Certainly you can see with the delinquency and the loss rates we're pretty happy with what the underwriting team's doing.

當然，從拖欠率和損失率來看，我們對核保團隊的做法非常滿意。

You made a comment in your question, you implied that maybe the difference between 19% apps versus 15% growth is the difference citing an underwriting and as family just pointed out, there's not 4% less approvals for the reasons we both just talked about. Remember.

您在問題中發表了評論，暗示 19% 的申請和 15% 的增長之間的差異可能是承保的差異，正如家人剛才指出的那樣，由於我們剛才談到的原因，批准量並沒有減少 4%。記住。

Also in that number there's mixed shifts and things like that as we do more direct to consumer and I mentioned some great names being added to our marketplace like Amazon and Walmart and Target, but some of those products come at a lower ticket as well. So you got a mixed shift there as with our AI driven.

此外，隨著我們更直接地面向消費者，這個數字中也存在混合轉變等情況，我提到一些偉大的名字被添加到我們的市場中，如亞馬遜、沃爾瑪和塔吉特，但其中一些產品的售價也較低。因此，就像我們的 AI 驅動一樣，您在那裡得到了混合轉變。

Lease ability engine we're able to lease things that we couldn't even lease before. They're durable goods, but they might only be $200 or $300.

租賃能力引擎讓我們能夠租賃以前無法租賃的東西。它們是耐用品，但可能只需 200 美元或 300 美元。

So you know that you got a mix shift in there so I wouldn't TRY to draw a straight line between approval rate and the and the really good strong growth that the Acima had. And lastly on the And the new customers, as Fay pointed out, they certainly, new customers are always riskier than your returning customers.

所以你知道你在那裡得到了混合轉變，所以我不會試圖在批准率和 Acima 所擁有的真正強勁增長之間畫一條直線。最後，關於新客戶，正如 Fay 指出的那樣，新客戶的風險總是比回頭客更大。

I mean thankfully that both teams at Acima, with like 40% repeat business and Rent-A-Center has always been strong on repeat business in the in the 65% to 70% range. So fortunately we have a lot of great returning customers that are less risky. But having said that, with the new customers are more risky, but I will tell you our credit metrics on new customers year over year are down.

我的意思是，值得慶幸的是，Acima 的兩個團隊都有 40% 的回頭客，而 Rent-A-Center 的回頭客率也一直保持在 65% 到 70% 左右。幸運的是，我們擁有許多優秀的回頭客，風險較低。但話雖如此，新客戶的風險更大，但我要告訴你，我們新客戶的信用指標逐年下降。

They're performing as we, as there's more on the high end and less on the low end, our new customers are outperforming a year ago with new customers perform, so we're really happy with that as well. And again, really happy with the way the underwriting team is working with the family's direction, of course. So hopefully that gives you the color you are looking for.

他們的表現和我們一樣，因為高端客戶較多，低端客戶較少，我們的新客戶表現優於一年前的新客戶，所以我們對此也感到非常高興。當然，我對核保團隊按照家人的意願開展工作的方式感到非常高興。希望它能給你想要的顏色。

Okay, that's perfect, very helpful detail, and that actually answered all my questions. So thanks again and congratulations.

好的，這很完美，非常有用的細節，實際上回答了我所有的問題。再次感謝並恭喜你。

Thanks, Vincent. I appreciate it.

謝謝，文森特。我很感激。

Hoang Nguyen, TD Cowen

Hoang Nguyen，TD Cowen

Thank you and congratulations on your retirement, Mitch, and congrats on your new role as Sammy.

謝謝你，米奇，恭喜你退休，也恭喜你擔任薩米的新角色。

Maybe if you can touch a little bit on Bridget, so you've closed the acquisitions for a month now. Maybe can you update us on the integration process so far? I know that previously you mentioned one of the benefits from Bridget is cash flow underwriting. I guess I mean how is that going on your side in terms of in terms of integration and what's your on your product road map and how do you plan to cross sell. To, I guess the customer base of the two companies.

也許你可以稍微談談布里奇特，所以你已經完成了一個月的收購。您能否向我們介紹迄今為止的整合進程？我知道您之前提到過 Bridget 的優勢之一是現金流承保。我想我的意思是，就整合而言，你們這邊進展如何？你們的產品路線圖是怎麼樣的呢？你們計劃如何交叉銷售？我猜是這兩家公司的客戶群。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thanks, Hon. I appreciate the question. So yeah, I mean we're 3 weeks in, so on the bridge of acquisition, so not much to report as far as the integration goes and things like that, but we're equally excited today as we were, a couple of months ago when we announced the transaction. We're very pleased that we were able to close it early in the in the quarter and get the process of integrating with them and really cross marketing with them as quickly as possible, and I think. The order of operations, I guess, will be more on the cross marketing side first. The underwriting teams have begun dialogue and figuring out ways that we can leverage some of the cash flow underwriting, but if I was going to prioritize one over the other, I think it's going to be more on the cross marketing given the customer overlap between the two organizations, and then from an underwriting standpoint, it takes a little bit more time to test the data, apply it to our consumer base, how does it complement our underwriting that we do today because it is very different, but it's something that we feel very bullish on our ability now to really understand our consumer, their payment behavior with real-time data. That is going to be a game changer for us. We talk about, the benefits of applying some of the techniques and models and tools that AEMA has been doing for years over on the Rent-A-Center side, the lift that we should be getting from the cash flow underwriting that Bridget does over onto AEMA and Rent-A-Center should be just as strong. So we're still early on in the process. We'll give updates as the year progresses. But we're very excited to add them to the team and get going.

謝謝，親愛的。我很感謝你提出這個問題。是的，我們已經進行了三週了，處於收購的橋樑階段，所以就整合等方面而言沒有太多可報告的，但我們今天和幾個月前宣布交易時一樣興奮。我們很高興能夠在本季度初完成交易，並儘快啟動與他們的整合流程，並真正與他們進行交叉行銷，我認為。我猜想，營運順序將首先集中在交叉行銷方面。核保團隊已經開始對話並尋找利用部分現金流承保的方法，但如果我要優先考慮其中一個，我認為考慮到兩個組織之間的客戶重疊，這將更多地放在交叉營銷上，然後從承保的角度來看，需要更多時間來測試數據，將其應用於我們的消費者群，它如何補充我們今天所做的承保，因為它非常樂觀，但我們對現在真正了解消費者的行為能力及其非常樂觀的行為能力。這對我們來說將會是一個重大的改變。我們討論了將 AEMA 多年來一直在使用的一些技術、模型和工具應用於 Rent-A-Center 的好處，以及 Bridget 為 AEMA 和 Rent-A-Center 提供的現金流承保所帶來的提升應該同樣強勁。因此，我們還處於這個過程的早期階段。隨著時間的推移，我們將提供更新資訊。但我們非常高興他們加入團隊並開始行動。

Yeah, and I agree, family that cross selling should start pretty darn soon, probably coming right out of tax season where it's going to be more necessary for the consumer as well coming out of tax season to call it April or May. But the teams are already working on that.

是的，我同意，家庭交叉銷售應該很快就會開始，可能就在稅收季節結束後，對於消費者來說，在稅收季節結束後（稱為四月或五月）也更加有必要。但團隊已開始著手進行這項工作。

They've been on a couple of calls just listening to the marketing teams, Anne and Sarah on our side.

他們已經打了幾通電話，聽取了我們這邊行銷團隊、安妮和莎拉的演講。

Ferra and Zubin on the on the Bridget team, working together and really etching it out already, so they're going to move pretty fast on that and none of that kind of stuff is in our guidance for next year, so that could all be the latter half of the year could all be a tailwind for us.

費拉 (Ferra) 和祖賓 (Zubin) 在布里奇特 (Bridget) 團隊中一起工作，並且已經真正地完成了工作，所以他們會在這方面進展得非常快，而這些事情都不在我們明年的指導範圍內，所以這一切可能都是下半年的順風，對我們來說都是有利的。

Got it. And I think you mentioned earlier that you had the two sizable merchant wins in the quarter.

知道了。我想您之前提到過，本季您獲得了兩項可觀的商家勝利。

Maybe can you talk a little bit about your pipeline, how to start tracking, and what has contributed to the success of your sales team in I guess winning over merchants from other providers.

也許您可以稍微談談您的管道、如何開始跟踪，以及什麼因素促成了您的銷售團隊成功贏得其他供應商的商家。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Yeah, good question, Hoang. It's been strong, 10%, we talk about 10% location growth in 2024.

是的，Hoang，你問得好。這個成長勢頭強勁，達到了 10%，我們預計 2024 年地點成長率將達到 10%。

And yeah, 10%'s just a number, and sometimes 10% sounds great, and sometimes it's just 10%. But you think about how big the number is when you have 300 or 40,000 locations in the first place and you still can grow at 10% a year. Our sales team is just knocking it out of the park at the seam and yeah, two good wins in the first quarter on regional players, TOP50 furniture players.

是的，10% 只是一個數字，有時 10% 聽起來很棒，但有時它只是 10%。但你想想，當你一開始就有 300 或 40,000 個門市時，這個數字有多大，而且你仍然可以以每年 10% 的速度成長。我們的銷售團隊正在全力以赴，是的，第一季在區域參與者和 TOP50 家具參與者中取得了兩場勝利。

And the pipeline remains strong. Lots of conversations going on like we always talk about and it's a long process. We just keep growing at the SMB level in these regional wins as some of the some of the larger players take a lot longer to. To close if you will. So really happy with all the winds and happy with the pipeline.

且管道依然強勁。正如我們經常談論的那樣，有很多對話正在進行，這是一個漫長的過程。我們在這些地區性勝利中，中小企業層面一直在不斷發展，而一些大型企業則需要更長的時間才能取得勝利。如果你願意的話可以關閉。所以真的對所有的風和管道都很滿意。

It continues. It continues to be strong. I think people are needing lease to own in this environment more so. They're waking up to that, so lots of conversations going on like I said.

它仍在繼續。它繼續保持強勁。我認為在這種環境下人們更需要租賃來擁有。他們開始意識到這一點，所以就像我說的，有很多對話正在進行。

I dare say that our sales team is the best there is because they're just guys like Chris and Jerry and Ed and Charles and I'll forget a whole bunch of names, but these guys are just with Tyler's direction, Tyler Montro's direction, they are just knocking it out of the park. I think how do you win, technology, are technology strong are offering strong.

我敢說我們的銷售團隊是最好的，因為他們就是像克里斯、傑瑞、艾德、查爾斯這樣的人，還有很多我忘了的名字，但這些人在泰勒、泰勒蒙特羅的指導下，他們表現得非常出色。我認為你如何取勝，技​​術，技術強大就是提供強大。

The we can integrate really fast we can integrate a lot of different ways so you got to have you got to be able to do that. You got to have the right sales team in the first place you got to be able to integrate, have the right offering, you have the right customer service.

我們可以非常快速地集成，我們可以集成許多不同的方式，所以你必須能夠做到這一點。首先，你必須擁有合適的銷售團隊，你必須能夠整合，提供合適的產品，提供合適的客戶服務。

Rent-A-Center helps a lot, it seem a lot of times where, when you think about a company the size of Ashley because we, when you buy a lot of furniture from Ashley, a computer company like [Aze] where you can be on their website as well as, buying computers for Anthony's team on the run the center site.

Rent-A-Center 提供了很大的幫助，很多時候，當你想到像 Ashley 這樣規模的公司時，你會發現，當你從 Ashley 購買大量家具時，你可以從像 [Aze] 這樣的電腦公司購買電腦，也可以在他們的網站上為運行中心網站的 Anthony 團隊購買電腦。

So, there's a lot of things that benefit us if they. If they've got a few locations that really have a lot of our kind of customers come in, we'll staff them, unlike anybody else in the industry, staff a few stores if that helps. So we've got subject matter experts who're willing to put in the store. So there's a lot of reasons why we're winning and things are really looking bright on the Acima side for sure.

因此，如果它們存在的話，很多事情都會對我們有益。如果他們有幾家店，確實有很多我們這樣的顧客光顧，我們就會為他們配備人員，與業內其他任何人不同，如果有幫助的話，我們會為幾家商店配備人員。因此，我們擁有願意為商店提供服務的主題專家。因此，我們獲勝的原因有很多，而且 Acima 方面的情況肯定非常光明。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Kyle Joseph, Stephens

凱爾·約瑟夫·史蒂芬斯

Hey, good morning. Let me echo, congratulations to you both. Just a question for me, regarding furniture retailers, seen a lot of headlines on bankruptcies there.

嘿，早安。讓我再次向你們表示祝賀。我有一個問題，關於家具零售商，看到很多關於破產的頭條新聞。

I just want, and I understand that, seem has been relatively immune to that given diversification, but on the rental center side of the business, is that a big opportunity for you as brick and mortar locations of pure play furniture retailers are on the decline?

我只是想，而且我理解，由於多元化，租賃中心似乎相對不受這種影響，但就業務租賃中心而言，這對您來說是一個巨大的機會，因為純家具零售商的實體店正在減少？

We sure feel like it is, Kyle, especially as we go into 2025, the last quarter of 2024, it might have been a headwind for us with all the with all the going out of business sales going on out there, of course some of them are regional players and some of them are more nationwide, but there's an awful lot of You to your point, an awful lot of close out sales that maybe were a headwind the latter couple of months of the year.

凱爾，我們確實感覺到了這一點，尤其是當我們進入 2025 年，也就是 2024 年的最後一個季度時，這對我們來說可能是一個阻力，因為外面有很多清倉銷售，當然其中一些是地區性企業，有些是全國性的，但正如您所說，有很多清倉銷售，這可能是今年後幾個月的一個阻力。

But as we go into 2025, that's all turning, that should all turn the other way. So we do see that as a as a potential. We didn't forecast any, anything great coming out of it, but we certainly see that as upside.

但隨著我們進入 2025 年，一切都將改變，一切都將朝著另一個方向轉變。所以我們確實認為這是一種潛力。我們沒有預測到任何偉大的事情會發生，但我們確實認為這是一個好處。

It could be upsides to both around a center and a Acima. So if those customers end up going. To rent a center or one of Acima's partners, as long as we get them from the upbound standpoint, and that could be.

這對於中心和 Acima 來說都可能是一個好處。所以如果這些顧客最後還是離開了。租用一個中心或 Acima 的合作夥伴，只要我們從上行角度獲得它們，就可以。

Upside, yeah, because we weren't in any of the big ones that have closed up, so I guess we just got lucky there, but that is, yeah, it's a benefit as they as they head into a store that more than likely would have a seam in it.

是的，有好處，因為我們不在任何一家已經關門的大店裡，所以我想我們只是很幸運，但那是，是的，這是一個好處，因為他們走進一家很可能有接縫的商店。

Got it, thanks. Yeah, and then just on the credit side of things, Acima losses are moving in or moved in the opposite direction of rack. You guys touched on this, I think you mentioned that some of that's trade down and some of that the integration of ANO and Acima, you know what's driving that and then I know I know you highlighted that you, underwriting changes at both in different timing there as well.

明白了，謝謝。是的，僅從信用方面來看，Acima 的損失正在向機架方向移動或朝著相反的方向移動。你們談到了這一點，我想你們提到了其中一些是交易下降，一些是 ANO 和 Acima 的整合，你知道是什麼推動了這一點，然後我知道你們強調了你們在不同時間承保的變化。

Yeah, I think it is just the trade down helping us Acima more than the trade downs helping Rent. Renter, was sequentially, flat.

是的，我認為降價交易對 Acima 的幫助比降價交易對 Rent 的幫助更大。租房者，環比持平。

I think it was 10 basis points or something, but it was basically flat for the 4th quarter, so we're happy that we've stabilized and we look at the delinquency going into tax season, which really starts in earnest today is that when we'll see some money coming through the door.

我認為是 10 個基點左右，但第四季度基本上持平，所以我們很高興我們已經穩定下來，我們看看進入納稅季節的拖欠情況，今天真正開始的是，我們會看到一些錢進賬。

So, as we go, as we've come into tax season, we're comfortable with where we're in the center is, but yeah, they haven't gotten all the benefit of trade down, helping the number go down. But, we've been able to stabilize it and the delinquency numbers look okay, I always want them a little lower, but they look okay, and we're pretty happy where we are.

因此，隨著我們進入納稅季節，我們對所處的中間位置感到滿意，但是，是的，他們並沒有獲得貿易下降帶來的所有好處，從而幫助數字下降。但是，我們已經能夠穩定它，並且拖欠率看起來還不錯，我總是希望它們低一點，但它們看起來還不錯，我們對現在的情況很滿意。

Great, thanks very much for answering my questions and congrats again.

太好了，非常感謝您回答我的問題，再次恭喜您。

Thanks, Kyle.

謝謝，凱爾。

John Hecht, Jefferies

赫克特（John Hecht），傑富瑞

Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions, and, I definitely want to echo the congratulations, to both you, Mitch and Fahmi, good story and a good transition and, just, congratulations all around.

早安.謝謝你們回答我的問題，我當然也想向米奇和法赫米表示祝賀，你們的故事很精彩，轉變也很順利，總之，祝賀你們。

I guess that yeah a lot of the questions you've been asked for me, the first one is, I know it's the first day of tax season that she just included to that, but is there any structural, I mean, we've heard that tax season, the from different operators or credit offers that, tax season, the influence of tax season has changed over the past couple years.

我想是的，您問我的很多問題，第一個問題是，我知道這是她剛剛提到的納稅季的第一天，但​​是是否存在任何結構性問題，我的意思是，我們聽說過納稅季，來自不同的運營商或信貸優惠，納稅季，納稅季的影響在過去幾年中發生了變化。

Partly because of timing factors and some other, and some structured tax changes you anything you want to call out this year that you're just looking out for and how that might influence the business.

部分原因是時間因素和其他一些因素，以及一些結構性稅收變化，您今年想要關注的任何事情以及這可能會如何影響業務。

Yeah, the only thing I have read about this year compared to really the last 2 years, I would say. I think you're right, it's changed a lot over the years, but really the last couple of years haven't been much different. But everything I'm reading, and I believe it, I mean there are kind of IRS facts that the refunds are starting out higher than last year.

是的，我想說，與過去兩年相比，這是我今年讀到的唯一一篇有關的文章。我認為你是對的，這些年來它發生了很大的變化，但實際上過去幾年並沒有太大的不同。但是我讀到的所有內容，我相信它，我的意思是有一些國稅局的事實表明退稅額比去年要高。

which would be a good thing for us, more money in our customers' pockets. More consumer confidence with more money in their pocket. I think we've proved that during stimulus how much better you can do when there's more money out there. So I think that if that continues to be the case, the higher refunds, I think that's going to be a better season than normal for us for sure.

這對我們來說是件好事，可以讓我們的客戶賺更多的錢。消費者信心增強，口袋裡的錢也更多了。我認為我們已經證明，在刺激計劃期間，當有更多的資金時，你可以做得更好。所以我認為，如果這種情況繼續下去，退款金額更高，我認為這對我們來說肯定會是一個比平常更好的賽季。

Okay, that, that's great. Second, you guys have done a good job building out DTC, volume of products and services and so forth. Maybe can you talk about the customer acquisition there, is that the is that as much cross sellers and as new customers.

好的，那太好了。其次，你們在建構DTC、產品和服務量等方面做得很好。也許您可以談談那裡的客戶獲取情況，即交叉銷售人員和新客戶的數量。

You know what's the opportunity set there and how does that influence? I'm assuming it's a the customer acquisition profile or the cost might be a little different. So how does it impact the metrics, and then how does the new acquisition influence that over the next, few quarters as well.

您知道那裡存在什麼樣的機會以及會產生怎樣的影響嗎？我假設這是一個客戶獲取概況，否則成本可能會有點不同。那麼，它會對指標產生什麼影響呢？新的收購會在接下來的幾季產生什麼影響？

Yeah, that's really, that's a really good question, John, because if we didn't have millions of customers already in our database, which are a lot easier to market to send back to the marketplace, to either go back to the retailer where they came from or to shop to shop on our marketplace with some of the unintegrated retailers.

是的，約翰，這確實是一個非常好的問題，因為如果我們的資料庫中沒有數百萬客戶，那麼我們就更容易向他們推銷產品，讓他們回到市場，要么回到他們原來的零售商那裡，要么在我們的市場上與一些未整合的零售商一起購物。

Your cost of customer acquisition can be pretty darn high if you didn't already, if you didn't already have all those millions of customers. So what we're doing is certainly using a lot of the cross selling and those millions of millions of customers that are both active and inactive already in the database as well as leaning into to driving new customers but doing it very, cautiously from an expense standpoint of.

如果您還沒有擁有數百萬客戶，那麼您的客戶獲取成本可能會非常高。因此，我們所做的肯定是利用大量的交叉銷售和資料庫中已有的數以百萬計的活躍和非活躍客戶，並傾向於吸引新客戶，但從費用的角度來看，我們會非常謹慎地進行。

So, that we don't drive up a lot of costs on customer acquisition, so it's a balance and we can keep our customer new customer acquisition low as we filter in new customers because we have so many repeat customers to deal with first.

因此，我們不會在客戶獲取上增加太多成本，這是一個平衡，我們可以在篩選新客戶時保持較低的新客戶獲取率，因為我們首先要處理很多回頭客。

Great. I appreciate that and congratulations again.

偉大的。我對此表示感謝並再次表示祝賀。

Thanks John.

謝謝約翰。

John Rowan, Janney Montgomery Scott

約翰·羅恩，詹妮·蒙哥馬利·斯科特

Morning guys.

大家早安。

I'll add my congratulations for both a great career, Mitch and obviously a good promotion. So Mitch, you'll be missed.

我要對米奇的出色職業生涯和明顯的晉升表示祝賀。所以米奇，我們會想念你的。

I obviously, I'm late in the questions here, so most of my questions have been answered, but any updates on the CFPB lawsuits between CFPB and Acima given the changes at the bureau?

顯然，我在這裡提問有點晚了，所以我的大多數問題都已經得到解答了，但是考慮到該局的變化，CFPB 和 Acima 之間的 CFPB 訴訟有任何更新嗎？

No, I mean, we're reading the, we're reading the same things you're reading about the bureau. We're waiting for the dust to settle, lots of changes over there and, we'll see what happens. We certainly feel good about our position in those cases, that part hasn't changed, in all those legal cases certainly continue to feel good about our position.

不，我的意思是，我們正在閱讀，我們正在閱讀與你正在閱讀的有關該局的相同內容。我們正在等待塵埃落定，那裡發生了很多變化，我們將看看會發生什麼。我們當然對自己在這些案件中的立場感到滿意，這一部分沒有改變，在所有這些法律案件中，我們當然繼續對自己的立場感到滿意。

It, like I said, we're all reading the same thing about the CFPB and where it may end up.

正如我所說的，我們都在閱讀有關消費者金融保護局 (CFPB) 及其最終結果的相同內容。

But maybe just as important as where they end up or even more important is when you think about the CFPB litigation we have going on. An almost identical lawsuit, one of our competitors, got just about fully dismissed. So, we're that's probably more important than anything else, the fact that a competitor of ours with a very similar lawsuit is basically, one big parts of their case against the CFPB.

但也許和他們的最終去向同樣重要甚至更重要的是當你想到我們正在進行的 CFPB 訴訟時。我們的一個競爭對手提起了幾乎完全相同的訴訟，但該訴訟幾乎被完全駁回。因此，我們認為這可能比其他任何事情都更重要的是，我們的競爭對手提起了非常相似的訴訟，這基本上是他們針對消費者金融保護局 (CFPB) 案件的重要組成部分。

So, that's a positive. We still continue to feel good about it and certainly we'll see what happens in Washington as far as, people we talked to there, we just got to wait for the dust to settle. There's a whole lot of confusion right now and we'll see over the next couple of months who we can even talk to up there. I guess it's one way to think about it, John.

所以，這是積極的。我們對此仍然感到高興，當然，我們會看看華盛頓會發生什麼，就我們在那裡交談過的人來說，我們只需要等待塵埃落定。現在有很多混亂的情況，我們將在接下來的幾個月中看看我們能和誰交談。我想這是一種思考方式，約翰。

Okay, I just, I guess kind of staying with the CFPV to some degree for a second. The, obviously trade down is a big part of the story and You know how much do you think that that's influenced by, or at least was influenced by the pending implementation of the late fee rule and obviously, that's another murky issue at this point but you know how are you looking at, the future of trade downs assuming that you know the late fee rule does not go into effect as ever.

好的，我只是，我想暫時在某種程度上停留在 CFPV 上。顯然，交易降級是故事的重要組成部分，您知道這在多大程度上受到即將實施的滯納金規則的影響，或者至少受到它的影響，顯然，這是目前另一個模糊的問題，但您知道您如何看待交易降級的未來，假設您知道滯納金規則不會像以往一樣生效。

Yeah, that's a good question. I actually I never thought that that that it was being driven as much by late fee rules as it's driven by the delinquency that that happens with the with the inflation and the environment the way it is now. Just like we talked about the Acima tightening up at the bottom and getting the benefit of trade down, that happens all the way up the spectrum and it's there's at the bottom.

是的，這是個好問題。我實際上從來沒有想過，這不僅受到滯納金規則的影響，還受到通貨膨脹和當前環境導致的拖欠現象的影響。就像我們談到 Acima 在底部收緊並降低貿易利益一樣，這種情況一直發生在整個範圍內，並且就在底部。

At the lower tiers of the prime customer and the near prime customer, there's stress and you know there's going to be, I think there's going to be continued tightening above us no matter what happens with the late fee rules.

在優質客戶和次優質客戶的較低層級，存在著壓力，而且你知道，無論滯納金規則如何變化，我認為我們上面的限制都會繼續收緊。

I think it's more about delinquency than it is about that, not to diminish the fact of what they what they could have done in the industry, but I think that the delinquency is It above us in the in the with some of the prime and near prime lenders is going to continue to drive trade down. That's my view, family. I don't know if you have any other view, but.

我認為這更多的是關於拖欠的問題，並不是要貶低他們在這個行業中所能做的事情，但我認為拖欠率高於我們，在一些優質和近優質貸款機構中，拖欠率將繼續推動貿易下滑。這就是我的看法，家人。我不知道您是否還有其他看法，但是。

No, I agree. And John, as when you're increasing price or tightening up, you tend to go faster on the way up than you do on the way down to give up some of that margin.

不，我同意。約翰，當你提高價格或收緊價格時，你往往會以更快的速度上漲而不是下降，從而放棄一些利潤。

So our expectation and the guide that we had for the year, was a relatively stable trade down environment.

因此，我們對今年的預期和指導是相對穩定的降價環境。

So we'll see how fast they start unwinding some of those things that they put in place to mitigate the late fee rules. Some are doing it, some aren't. Waiting to see where the where it settles, but either way, we'll be ready to adjust to the environment throughout the year.

因此，我們將拭​​目以待，看看他們將以多快的速度開始取消為減輕滯納金規定而製定的一些措施。有些人這樣做，有些人則沒有。等待看它會在哪裡穩定下來，但無論如何，我們都將準備好全年適應環境。

Okay, fair enough, thank you.

好的，夠了，謝謝。

Very much.

非常。

Thanks.

謝謝。

Anthony Chukumba, Loop Capital Markets

安東尼·楚昆巴 (Anthony Chukumba)，Loop 資本市場

Good morning. Let me add my congratulations as well on the retirement and the promotion. So just real quickly, you talked about a seamen marketplace and you talked about the fact that you added these, new, partners, certainly very impressive.

早安.我也對您退休和晉升表示祝賀。所以很快，您談到了海員市場，並談到了您增加這些新合作夥伴的事實，這當然非常令人印象深刻。

Names. I was, I guess I just had two quick questions. One, even just directionally if you can just let us know what the marketplace, how much GMV had accounted for in 2024, and then, how did that grow in 2024 and sort of what is your expectation in 2025 thanks.

名字。我想我只有兩個簡單的問題。首先，即使只是從方向上講，您能否告訴我們市場是什麼樣的，2024 年的 GMV 是多少，然後，2024 年的增長情況如何，以及您對 2025 年的期望是什麼，謝謝。

Anthony, good morning. Thanks for the question. So the marketplace in general, we've talked about, the impressive growth rate that it's had this year growing, 60% or so in the fourth quarter, but it is on a relatively small base in total when you think about, almost $1.9 billion of GMV for Acima for the year in a low single digit range is what its contribution is. to GMV, but the growth rate is nice and as Mitch mentioned.

安東尼，早安。謝謝你的提問。因此，我們已經討論過整個市場，它今年的成長率令人印象深刻，第四季成長率約為 60%，但總體而言，基數相對較小，Acima 今年的 GMV 接近 19 億美元，而且處於個位數的低位，這就是它的貢獻。對 GMV 來說，但成長率很好，正如 Mitch 所提到的。

We just recently added some of those bigger names that gives our consumers a lot of different variety and a lot of different options for them to go shop and you know as we talk about, the pipeline for some of the integrated options.

我們最近剛剛添加了一些大品牌，為我們的消費者提供了多種多樣的商品和多種不同的購物選擇，正如我們所討論的，還有一些整合選項的管道。

We're going to continue to work on those names and we're in a couple of RFPs that, and we've talked about how long those take to kind of work themselves through and we'll continue to do that. But at the same time, we're trying to find additional ways to increase our GMV and that virtual lease card that we talked about being able to put more of the control in the hands of consumers to be able to go shop.

我們將繼續處理這些名稱，並且我們已經參與了幾個 RFP，並且我們已經討論了這些名稱需要多長時間才能完成，我們將繼續這樣做。但同時，我們正在嘗試尋找其他方法來增加我們的 GMV 和虛擬租賃卡，以便將更多的控制權交到消費者手中，讓他們能夠去購物。

whether it's through our marketplace or through the app on their phone. That's where we're going to, in the meantime go after the DMV and, now that we have the lease ability engine which allows us to understand what products that they're shopping at these locations, that's a new powerful tool that we look forward to growing as.

無論是透過我們的市場還是透過他們手機上的應用程式。同時，我們將追隨 DMV 的腳步，現在我們有了租賃能力引擎，它使我們能夠了解顧客在這些地方購買什麼產品，這是一個強大的新工具，我們期待它不斷成長。

The year goes on. Yeah, and to your point, Sammy, low single digits becomes mid and then, in 2025 and, next couple of years, we'll hit double digits with it. It's a great vehicle for us.

新的一年還在繼續。是的，正如你所說，薩米，低個位數會變成中等，然後在 2025 年以及接下來的幾年裡，我們會達到兩位數。對我們來說，這是一輛很棒的車。

That's helpful.

這很有幫助。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thanks Anthony.

謝謝安東尼。

Bill Rutter, Bank of America

比爾·魯特（Bill Rutter），美國銀行

Hi, most of mine have been asked. I just have one.

你好，我的大部分問題都被問過了。我只有一個。

You mentioned that there's nothing imminent in terms of the M&A pipeline, but you also mentioned that you will continue to look for additional technology solutions to add or digital solutions to add to the platform. I guess how do you think about the next year? Would you be in a position to buy something over the next year or will you be focusing on optimization of Bridget over that period? That's it, thanks.

您提到，在併購管道方面沒有什麼迫在眉睫的事情，但您也提到，您將繼續尋找額外的技術解決方案或數位解決方案來添加到平台中。我猜您對明年有什麼看法？您是否會在明年購買某些東西，或者您是否會在那段時間專注於 Bridget 的優化？就這樣，謝謝。

Thanks for the question. Yeah, I think, as we said, right now, we have plenty of work to do amongst all three brands, plenty of work to do to get the collaboration going with Bridget and You can tell by the guide we have a lot of growth kind of baked in, so we feel like we have plenty to do.

謝謝你的提問。是的，我認為，正如我們所說的那樣，現在，我們在這三個品牌之間還有很多工作要做，還有很多工作要做，以便與布里奇特進行合作，你可以從指南中看出，我們已經實現了很多增長，所以我們覺得我們還有很多工作要做。

But you never close the door if there's an opportunity that arises that we feel like fit the strategic plan, we feel like we'll expedite that plan and we can get the right value from it, then. You never say never. We'll look at it, but for the moment, I think all the team, here in the building is ready to start integrating with Bridget, and achieve some of the initiatives that we laid out for both Rent-A-Center and Acima, so nothing in the in the near term.

但是，如果出現一個機會，我們覺得它適合戰略計劃，我們覺得我們會加快這個計劃，然後我們可以從中獲得正確的價值，那麼你就永遠不會關上大門。你永遠不會說永遠不會。我們會考慮，但目前，我認為大樓裡的所有團隊都已準備好開始與 Bridget 整合，並實現我們為 Rent-A-Center 和 Acima 制定的一些計劃，因此短期內不會有任何進展。

Great.

偉大的。

Thank.

感謝。

You.

你。

You Ladies and gentlemen, I am showing no further questions in the queue. I would now like to turn the call back to Mitch for closing remarks.

女士們、先生們，隊列中沒有其他問題。現在我想請米奇做最後發言。

Thanks to Wanda and thanks to everyone who joined us today for our 4th quarter update and our outlook for 2025. We appreciate your time.

感謝萬達，也感謝今天加入我們討論第四季度更新和 2025 年展望的所有人。感謝您的時間。

I'll add my congratulations to Famy on this on this promotion publicly. Add it.

我將公開向 Famy 的此次晉升表示祝賀。添加它。

Thankful for the way we work together and look forward to working in the next few months together to make a smooth transition and just as important as that, very thankful for all of our employees, all of our dedicated employees, and of course our merchant partners who are helping us deliver.

感謝我們的合作方式，並期待在接下來的幾個月裡共同努力，實現平穩過渡，同樣重要的是，非常感謝我們所有的員工、所有敬業的員工，當然還有幫助我們實現目標的商家合作夥伴。

What I call pretty impressive 4th quarter results and setting us up for a very strong 2025. So we're, I'm grateful to everyone for their collective efforts, some great jobs being done out there, and I appreciate it. We appreciate it. I know our stakeholders do, and thank you again for your support and look forward to updating you next quarter. Have a great day.

我認為第四季的業績相當令人印象深刻，為我們 2025 年的強勁表現奠定了基礎。因此，我感謝大家的共同努力，完成了一些出色的工作，我對此表示感謝。我們對此表示感謝。我知道我們的利害關係人會這樣做，再次感謝您的支持，並期待下個季度向您報告最新情況。祝你有美好的一天。

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's conference call.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。

Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。