Upbound Group Inc (UPBD) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by. My name is Roselle, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the quarter one 2025 Upbound Group, Inc. earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Jeff Chesnut. Please go ahead.

感謝您的支持。我叫羅塞爾，今天我將擔任您的會議主持人。現在，我歡迎大家參加 Upbound Group, Inc. 2025 年第一季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）現在我想將電話轉給 Jeff Chesnut 先生。請繼續。

Good morning and thank you all for joining us to discuss (technical difficulty) We issued our earnings release this morning before the market opened, and the release and all related materials, including the 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（技術難題）我們今天早上在市場開盤前發布了收益報告，該報告和所有相關材料（包括現場網絡直播的鏈接）都可以在我們的網站 investor.upbound.com 上找到。

On the call today from Upbound Group, we have Mitch 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. These factors are described in our earnings release, as well as in the company's SEC filings.

在今天 Upbound Group 的電話會議上，我們邀請了我們的執行長 Mitch Fadel；以及我們的財務長 Fahmi Karam。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。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。

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

除非法律要求，否則 Upbound Group 不承擔公開更新或修改任何前瞻性聲明的義務。此次電話會議也將提及非公認會計準則財務指標。請參閱我們網站上的今日收益報告，以了解非公認會計準則 (GAAP) 財務指標的說明以及與最可比較的 GAAP 財務指標的對帳。

Finally, Upbound 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. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mitch.

最後，Upbound 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。說完這些，我會把電話轉給米奇。

Thank you, Jeff, and good morning, everyone. As I start my 30th and final earnings call as Upbound CEO, I'd like to share with you my perspective on the state of our business. When I started in this business over 40 years ago, the industry was just starting to transition from a highly fragmented and localized model to a more centralized and professionally run model.

謝謝你，傑夫，大家早安。當我作為 Upbound 執行長開始第 30 次也是最後一次財報電話會議時，我想與大家分享我對我們業務狀況的看法。40多年前，當我開始從事這個行業時，這個行業才剛開始從高度分散和在地化的模式轉型為更集中和專業化的營運模式。

And that evolution delivered a host of benefits for our customers, including a consistent experience across all of our stores, as well as unlocking the benefits of our scale, which enabled lower prices and enhanced services across our growing national footprint. That's the playbook that ultimately led to our IPO and powered our success thereafter.

這種轉變為我們的客戶帶來了一系列好處，包括在我們所有門市獲得一致的體驗，以及釋放我們的規模優勢，從而能夠在不斷擴大的全國範圍內降低價格並增強服務。這就是最終促成我們首次公開發行並推動我們成功的策略。

As the world changed, our customers changed, and we responded by changing our business as well. And today, Upbound is committed to our mission of elevating financial opportunity for all with a goal of becoming the financial platform that meaningfully and seamlessly improves our customers' financial lives. And I'll start on Slide 4 and talk just about how we're going to deliver on and how we do deliver on that mission.

隨著世界的變化，我們的客戶也發生了變化，我們也透過改變業務來回應。今天，Upbound 致力於實現為所有人提供金融機會的使命，目標是成為一個能夠實際改善客戶財務生活的金融平台。我將從幻燈片 4 開始討論我們將如何實現這項使命。

We acquired Acima in 2021 to grow our ability to offer leases virtually, which dramatically expanded our TAM and enabled us to become a critical sales enablement partner for what's now over 35,000 retailer locations across the country. Since then, we've provided more than 14 million leases to over 6.5 million customers who do not typically have access to the traditional financial services ecosystem.

我們於 2021 年收購了 Acima，以增強我們虛擬提供租賃的能力，這大大擴展了我們的 TAM，並使我們成為目前全國超過 35,000 個零售點的重要銷售支援合作夥伴。自那時起，我們已向超過 650 萬名通常無法享受傳統金融服務生態系統的客戶提供了超過 1,400 萬份租約。

Along the way, we've developed a proprietary and differentiated view of the underserved population, and we know we can leverage that knowledge base to responsibly help those customers with new products through our growing digital channels, while delivering that same superior level of customer service.

在這個過程中，我們對服務不足的人群形成了專有的、差異化的看法，我們知道我們可以利用這個知識庫，透過我們不斷增長的數位管道負責任地幫助這些客戶提供新產品，同時提供同樣卓越的客戶服務。

And that's why we added the Brigit business. Their team has developed an innovative set of products that help customers save money, avoid fees, learn to budget better, build credit and with more offerings on the horizon. Those products are built upon a foundation of data elements and risk insights from banking connections with -- and cash flow underwriting technology. Ultimately, what it means is, Brigit has a real-time robust view of its customers' financial needs and can continue to build new products that meet and exceed those needs to help those customers live better lives.

這就是我們增加 Brigit 業務的原因。他們的團隊開發了一套創新產品，幫助客戶省錢、避免費用、學會更好預算、建立信用，並提供更多即將推出的產品。這些產品建立在銀行關係的數據元素和風險洞察以及現金流承保技術的基礎上。最終，這意味著 Brigit 可以即時、全面地了解客戶的財務需求，並且可以繼續打造滿足甚至超越這些需求的新產品，幫助這些客戶過上更好的生活。

Collectively, our brands have a wealth of consumer intelligence of unmatched quality, depth, and breadth, covering the non-prime segment. And it makes for a really, really powerful foundation that we can harness and unify the data between our businesses on an underserved population that, as I mentioned, doesn't participate in the traditional credit system and is looking for options. And this all allows us to be a stronger and more holistic financial partner to them and a more indispensable partner to our merchant roster.

總的來說，我們的品牌擁有豐富的消費者情報，其品質、深度和廣度無與倫比，涵蓋非主要市場。它為我們提供了一個非常強大的基礎，使我們能夠利用和統一我們業務之間的數據，這些數據針對的是服務不足的人群，正如我所提到的，這些人群沒有參與傳統的信用體系，正在尋找選擇。這一切使我們成為他們更強大、更全面的金融合作夥伴，並成為我們商戶名冊中更不可或缺的合作夥伴。

Over my 40 years in the business, I've seen every cycle the market has experienced. And our business has weathered them all and emerged stronger on the other side every single time, primarily because we kept it simple. We focus on doing what's best for our customers. And when we do that, we earn their trust, their loyalty, and their future business.

我從業四十年來，見證了市場經歷的每個週期。我們的業務經受住了所有考驗，並且每次都變得更加強大，主要是因為我們保持了簡單。我們專注於為客戶提供最好的服務。當我們這樣做時，我們就會贏得他們的信任、忠誠和未來的業務。

Because of that commitment delivered each day by our team, Upbound is stronger today than it's ever been. And with that background, I want to move to the key highlights from the first quarter of 2025, as well as a discussion on the progress we've made on our priorities for the year. And then, Fahmi will share a more detailed review of our financial results and, of course, of our outlook. And after that, we'll take some questions.

由於我們團隊每天都做出的承諾，Upbound 今天比以往任何時候都更強大。在此背景下，我想談談 2025 年第一季的主要亮點，以及我們在今年優先事項上取得的進展的討論。然後，法赫米將更詳細地回顧我們的財務業績，當然還有我們的前景。之後，我們會回答一些問題。

Let's move to slide 5 and discuss some of the key drivers of our performance this quarter. At Acima, we carried last year's momentum into 2025 with GMV growth of nearly 9% year over year on higher applications and funded leases in this quarter relative to the first quarter of last year. As we mentioned before, Acima's growth comes from a highly diversified lineup of merchant relationships with the top 10 merchants representing about 30% of the total GMV.

讓我們轉到投影片 5，討論本季業績的一些關鍵驅動因素。在 Acima，我們將去年的勢頭延續到了 2025 年，由於本季度的申請量和融資租賃量較去年第一季有所增加，GMV 同比增長近 9%。正如我們之前提到的，Acima 的成長來自高度多樣化的商家關係陣容，前 10 名商家約佔 GMV 總量的 30%。

Acima achieved that growth, that 9% -- roughly 9% year-over-year growth, while improving its lease charge-offs by 70 basis points from last year, leading to a step-up in adjusted EBITDA margin of 170 basis points. I'm going to say it another way for emphasis and just to put it simply, Acima has been on a tear since late 2023, and it just booked its highest ever quarterly revenue figure, while concurrently delivering year-over-year improvements in EBITDA margins and lease charge-off rate.

Acima 實現了這一增長，即 9% 的增長——大約是同比增長 9%，同時其租賃沖銷額比去年提高了 70 個基點，導致調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率提高了 170 個基點。為了強調，我想換一種說法，簡單地說，Acima 自 2023 年底以來一直處於高速發展階段，剛剛實現了有史以來最高的季度收入，同時 EBITDA 利潤率和租賃沖銷率也實現了同比增長。

Without question, the world is changing, but we believe Acima's growing roster of over 35,000 merchant locations is a unique differentiator that enhances its presence wherever and whenever durable goods transactions are occurring.

毫無疑問，世界正在發生變化，但我們相信，Acima 不斷增長的 35,000 多家商家名單是一個獨特的差異化因素，無論何時何地發生耐久財交易，它都能增強其存在感。

On top of that, our direct-to-consumer marketplace and AI-powered leasability engine unlocks leasing opportunities with unintegrated retailers where we do not yet have a formal relationship. These advantages are meaningful and sustainable, and it's why we expect to see low-double-digit GMV growth across the balance of the year, and that's on top of 17% last year.

最重要的是，我們的直接面向消費者的市場和人工智慧驅動的租賃引擎為我們尚未建立正式關係的未整合零售商提供了租賃機會。這些優勢是有意義的且可持續的，這就是為什麼我們預計今年全年 GMV 將達到低兩位數成長，而去年的成長率將達到 17%。

At Rent-A-Center, same-store sales were down 2%, mostly as a result of two adjustments we implemented in the second half of last year. And we previously mentioned that we tightened our underwriting to protect our charge-off rate, knowing that it would also impact Rent-A-Center's growth rate since that segment doesn't see the trade-down benefit as quickly as Acima does.

在 Rent-A-Center，同店銷售額下降了 2%，主要是因為我們在去年下半年實施了兩項調整。我們之前提到過，我們收緊了承保以保護我們的沖銷率，同時我們知道這也會影響 Rent-A-Center 的成長率，因為該部門不像 Acima 那樣迅速地看到降級效益。

In addition to tightening up the underwriting, we removed higher -- certain higher loss products from our lineup to optimize efficiency and margins, which created a secondary headwind to topline growth. Overall, that's what drove the slightly negative minus 2% same-store sales.

除了收緊承保之外，我們還從產品線中移除了某些損失較大的產品，以優化效率和利潤率，但這對營收成長造成了第二個阻力。總體而言，這就是同店銷售額略微下降 2% 的原因。

And these decisions did yield the expected benefit and produced a lease charge-off rate of 4.6% for the first quarter, down 10 basis points year over year and 40 basis points sequentially. In a couple of slides, I'll highlight some of the key digital initiatives that we're rolling out at Rent-A-Center to drive even more customer engagement and activity.

這些決策確實產生了預期的效益，第一季的租賃沖銷率為 4.6%，年減 10 個基點，較上季下降 40 個基點。在幾張投影片中，我將重點介紹我們在 Rent-A-Center 推出的一些關鍵數位舉措，以推動更多的客戶參與和活動。

And Brigit joined Upbound on January 31, and its financial wellness solutions continue to resonate with consumers as we booked mid-20% growth in both subscribers and cash advances versus the year ago period.

布里吉特於 1 月 31 日加入 Upbound，其財務健康解決方案繼續引起消費者的共鳴，與去年同期相比，我們的用戶數量和現金預支量均增長了 20% 左右。

On a pro forma basis, revenue for the full three-month quarter was up 38% year over year. We're very pleased with those results, especially when you think about Brigit customarily dials back its marketing spend in the first quarter due to the positive impact of tax refunds on consumer liquidity.

以備考基礎計算，整個季度的營收年增 38%。我們對這些結果非常滿意，尤其是當你想到由於退稅對消費者流動性的正面影響，Brigit 通常在第一季減少其行銷支出。

That growth also preceded the trials of our cross-sell initiatives, which we purposely started as tax season was concluding. Brigit's emphasis on sustainable growth resulted in customer acquisition costs and a net advance loss rate within our expectations.

這種增長也先於我們嘗試交叉銷售計劃，我們特意在納稅季節結束時開始嘗試交叉銷售計劃。布里吉特強調永續成長，導致客戶獲取成本和淨預付損失率符合我們的預期。

So let's go to slide 6 and recap our consolidated financial results in Q1. First quarter revenue of nearly $1.2 billion was a 7.3% increase from a year ago period, mainly driven by strength in Acima, plus the addition of two months of Brigit. Upbound delivered $126 million of adjusted EBITDA, which was a lift of almost 16% against Q1 of 2024, and adjusted EBITDA margins of 10.7%, which was up 70 basis points from last year.

讓我們轉到第 6 張投影片並回顧第一季的綜合財務表現。第一季營收接近 12 億美元，較去年同期成長 7.3%，主要得益於 Acima 的強勁成長以及 Brigit 兩個月的增加。Upbound 的調整後 EBITDA 為 1.26 億美元，較 2024 年第一季成長近 16%，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 10.7%，比去年同期成長了 70 個基點。

Non-GAAP diluted EPS was $1, which was about 27% higher than the year ago quarter. Upbound generated free cash flow of $127 million, which is nearly 4 times larger than last year's first quarter result. Each of these figures -- each of these really strong figures exceeds the midpoint or the high end of our guidance range that we provided on our last call.

非公認會計準則稀釋每股收益為 1 美元，比去年同期高出約 27%。Upbound 產生的自由現金流為 1.27 億美元，幾乎是去年第一季業績的 4 倍。每一個數字——每一個非常強勁的數字都超出了我們在上次電話會議上提供的指導範圍的中點或高端。

In terms of lease charge-offs, we finished the quarter at 8.9% for Acima and 4.6% for Rent-A-Center, representing improvements both year over year and sequentially. These are really strong results, and I'm pleased that Upbound delivered them during a period of macro uncertainty. And our customers, as you know, are seeing the same headlines as the market, whether it's tariff escalations or sticky inflation.

在租賃沖銷方面，本季 Acima 的沖銷率為 8.9%，Rent-A-Center 的沖銷率為 4.6%，年比和季比均有所改善。這些都是非常強勁的成果，我很高興 Upbound 在宏觀不確定時期取得了這些成果。如您所知，我們的客戶看到的是與市場相同的頭條新聞，無論是關稅升級還是頑固的通貨膨脹。

On the other hand, unemployment is around 4%, which is below the pre-COVID 10-year average, and the average tax refund has been ahead of the prior two years, slightly ahead at least, which affords our customers a boost to either their spending power or their savings cushion.

另一方面，失業率約為 4%，低於新冠疫情爆發前的 10 年平均水平，平均退稅額比前兩年有所增加，至少略有增加，這可以提高我們客戶的消費能力或儲蓄緩衝。

Additionally, there's been a nice pullback in gas prices at the pump, which is meaningful for lower-income consumers. And on balance, our consumers are confronting that volatility with deliberate shopping and spending decisions.

此外，加油站的汽油價格也大幅回落，對低收入消費者來說意義重大。總的來說，我們的消費者正在透過深思熟慮的購物和消費決策來應對這種波動。

As I've seen quite a few times in the last 40 years, a tougher macro environment gives us as many tailwinds as it does headwinds. Just look at the trade-down impact that Acima is seeing right now. We've proven over the years that our business can be more and more relevant to consumers in times like these. Durable goods categories like furniture, appliances, and tires are often necessities that need to be addressed in the moment. And our value proposition of high-quality goods and low payments, no long-term financial commitment, and tremendous flexibility can attract even more new customers to LTO offerings during uncertain conditions.

正如我在過去 40 年裡多次看到的那樣，更為嚴峻的宏觀環境給我們帶來的順風和逆風一樣多。看看 Acima 目前所看到的降價影響。多年來我們已經證明，在這樣的時代，我們的業務與消費者的連結越來越緊密。家具、電器和輪胎等耐用品類別通常是需要立即解決的必需品。我們的價值主張是高品質的商品和低付款、無需長期財務承諾以及極大的靈活性，可以在不確定的條件下吸引更多新客戶使用 LTO 產品。

Just go back and look at our results during the Great Recession in 2008, where we outperformed the market, grew our business, and managed losses at our normal levels. Additionally, we have new products outside of lease-to-own with our new Instant Cash advances via Brigit that can help customers manage their liquidity and avoid expensive bank fees. And this is how the full spectrum of Upbound solutions can make a meaningful difference in people's lives, and the current economic climate really amplifies the value proposition we deliver for our customers: convenience, flexibility, access to name brand durable goods on the LTL side; and now liquidity solutions and financial literacy, smart alerts, credit building and the like, and many financial wellness tools on the Brigit side.

回顧我們在 2008 年大衰退期間的業績，當時我們的表現優於市場，業務成長，並將損失控制在正常水平。此外，除了租賃購買之外，我們還透過 Brigit 提供新的即時現金預支服務，幫助客戶管理流動性並避免昂貴的銀行費用。這就是 Upbound 全方位解決方案如何為人們的生活帶來有意義的改變，當前的經濟環境真正放大了我們為客戶提供的價值主張：便利性、靈活性、在 LTL 方面獲得名牌耐用品；現在還有流動性解決方案和金融知識、智能警報、信用建設等，以及 Brigit 方面的許多金融健康工具。

We're well prepared to support our existing customers, while welcoming these new customers to our family of brands with our existing offerings and a pipeline of new products coming this year, which is a good segue really to slide 7, which discusses our strategic priorities for 2025 that we outlined a few months ago.

我們已做好充分準備來支持現有客戶，同時透過現有產品和今年即將推出的一系列新產品歡迎這些新客戶加入我們的品牌家族，這實際上是一個很好的過渡到第 7 張幻燈片，其中討論了我們幾個月前概述的 2025 年戰略重點。

Across the first quarter, we made great progress in our digital investments towards a stronger, more efficient, more unified customer experience, and we're continuing to build new connections between our segments towards our goal of providing a seamless set of financial solutions to our customers.

在第一季度，我們在數位投資方面取得了巨大進展，致力於提供更強大、更有效率、更統一的客戶體驗，並且我們將繼續在各個部門之間建立新的聯繫，以實現為客戶提供無縫金融解決方案的目標。

At Acima, we debuted an upgraded product experience. The new design was informed by the latest intelligence in customer preferences and shopping habits, resulting in a more personalized and tailored experience for Acima's user community.

在 Acima，我們首次推出了升級的產品體驗。新設計參考了客戶偏好和購物習慣的最新情報，為 Acima 的用戶社群帶來了更個人化和客製化的體驗。

That personalization is unlocked by the product's ability to capture more insights about the customer such as their shopping preferences in-store or online, their favorite categories, which the app can then feature, and their leasing history, so Acima's recommendation engine can suggest related products. Collectively, it means we can communicate more effectively and more efficiently with our customers to have them return for the next lease more quickly and drive GMV growth.

這種個人化是透過產品能夠捕捉更多關於客戶的見解而實現的，例如他們在店內或網上的購物偏好、他們最喜歡的類別（應用程式可以展示這些類別）以及他們的租賃歷史，因此 Acima 的推薦引擎可以推薦相關產品。總的來說，這意味著我們可以更有效、更有效率地與客戶溝通，讓他們更快回來進行下一次租賃，並推動 GMV 成長。

I'm also pleased to preview a new initiative for Acima, which is to launch a pilot in the Mexican market later this year or early next year, depending on regulatory approvals. And Acima's expansion into Mexico is a natural extension of the success it has achieved here in the US in a market where we already conduct business through Rent-A-Center with millions of target consumers who can benefit with a low payment, flexible lease product to access durable goods.

我也很高興地預告 Acima 的一項新舉措，該舉措將在今年稍後或明年年初在墨西哥市場啟動試點，具體時間取決於監管部門的批准。Acima 向墨西哥的擴張是其在美國市場取得成功的自然延伸，我們在美國市場已經透過 Rent-A-Center 開展業務，數百萬目標消費者可以透過低付款、靈活的租賃產品獲得耐用品。

Acima is leveraging the established local expertise of the Rent-A-Center Mexico team for in-depth visibility into consumer spending and payment patterns, decisioning models, and account management strategies, along with operational support tied to the 130-store footprint we already have down there. Acima's scalable platform, combined with Rent-A-Center Mexico's local infrastructure creates a strong foundation for cost-effective accelerated growth, and we look forward to updating you on our progress across the balance of the year.

Acima 正在利用 Rent-A-Center 墨西哥團隊成熟的在地專業知識，深入了解消費者支出和支付模式、決策模型和帳戶管理策略，以及與我們在那裡已有的 130 家門市相關的營運支援。Acima 的可擴展平台與 Rent-A-Center Mexico 的本地基礎設施相結合，為具有成本效益的加速增長奠定了堅實的基礎，我們期待著向您通報我們在今年餘下時間的進展情況。

At Rent-A-Center, we are seeing promising early returns on our digital enhancements, which are designed to boost the conversions from shoppers to customers. These include the new Google AI search functionality on the core website, which is now returning search results more tightly aligned with our shoppers' intent. We also rolled out a new online chatbot to more intelligently guide customers through the shopping journey towards the right leasable item. And so, when they're ready to apply for a lease, they will really appreciate our streamlined application flow, which is designed to deliver a more frictionless experience and minimize abandonment.

在 Rent-A-Center，我們看到數位化增強功能帶來的良好早期回報，這些功能旨在促進從購物者到客戶的轉換。其中包括核心網站上的全新 Google AI 搜尋功能，該功能現在返回的搜尋結果與購物者的意圖更加緊密地契合。我們還推出了新的線上聊天機器人，以更聰明地引導顧客在購物過程中找到合適的可租賃物品。因此，當他們準備申請租約時，他們會非常欣賞我們簡化的申請流程，該流程旨在提供更順暢的體驗並最大限度地減少放棄。

From an account management standpoint, we recently embedded Cash App payment capabilities, and we know Rent-A-Center customers will appreciate more ways to pay, especially considering its already high penetration with our customer base. So really happy about adding Cash App payment capabilities.

從帳戶管理的角度來看，我們最近嵌入了 Cash App 支付功能，我們知道 Rent-A-Center 客戶會喜歡更多的付款方式，尤其是考慮到它在我們的客戶群中已經很高的滲透率。非常高興添加 Cash App 支付功能。

In addition to our continuing digital investments, enhanced collaboration is a paramount priority for this year, especially with the addition of Brigit. A key differentiator for Brigit is its cash flow underwriting platform, which Rent-A-Center and Acima will test into over time. We believe that real-time data will produce more approvals and fewer losses across the business. And right now, we're focused on introducing our Rent-A-Center and Acima customers to Brigit offerings through digital messaging and marketing collateral in our stores.

除了我們持續的數位投資之外，加強協作也是今年的首要任務，尤其是在布里吉特的加入之後。Brigit 的一個關鍵區別在於其現金流承保平台，Rent-A-Center 和 Acima 將對該平台進行長期測試。我們相信即時數據將為整個企業帶來更多的批准和更少的損失。目前，我們專注於透過商店中的數位資訊和行銷材料向我們的 Rent-A-Center 和 Acima 客戶介紹 Brigit 產品。

We're just ramping up that effort. But over time, we believe we can deliver new customers to Brigit at essentially no incremental cost, which will lower Brigit's customer acquisition costs and drive further growth. As always, our teams will continue to develop collaborative approaches to support our customers and reinforce transaction volumes.

我們正在加大努力。但隨著時間的推移，我們相信我們可以在基本上不增加成本的情況下為 Brigit 帶來新客戶，這將降低 Brigit 的客戶獲取成本並推動進一步成長。像往常一樣，我們的團隊將繼續開發協作方法來支援我們的客戶並加強交易量。

And before Fahmi takes you through our segment results in a little more detail, I'd like to acknowledge how talented and dedicated our team is, and they continue to turn our aspirations into reality. And every day, our team's relentless focus on our customer helps bring our mission to life, and their commitment and motivation is second to none.

在法赫米向您詳細介紹我們的分部業績之前，我想先感謝一下我們的團隊是多麼有才華和敬業，他們不斷將我們的願望變成現實。每天，我們的團隊都堅持不懈地專注於客戶，幫助我們實現使命，他們的承諾和動力是首屈一指的。

And I'm really humbled each day to be a part of such a special group. I know I'm going to miss being part of this group. They're doing such a great job, and I sure appreciate each and every one of them. And with that, I'll hand it over to Fahmi.

我每天都為自己能成為這樣一個特殊團體的一份子而感到榮幸。我知道我會懷念成為這個團體的一員。他們做得非常出色，我非常感謝他們每一個人。說完這些，我就把麥克風交給法赫米。

Thank you, Mitch, and good morning, everyone. Let's now turn to the segment results and then discuss our outlook for the balance of 2025, after which we will take questions. Acima recorded Q1 GMV growth of 8.8% year-over-year, in line with our expectations and an impressive print, given we are comping nearly 20% growth in the same quarter of 2024, resulting in approximately 29% GMV growth on a stacked two-year basis.

謝謝你，米奇，大家早安。現在讓我們來看看分部業績，然後討論一下我們對 2025 年平衡的展望，之後我們將回答問題。Acima 第一季的 GMV 年成長 8.8%，符合我們的預期，而且令人印象深刻，因為 2024 年同期的成長率接近 20%，兩年累計 GMV 成長率約為 29%。

Acima's GMV this quarter was the highest it's been in the first quarter since the pull-forward in 2021, and it was driven by an increase in applications of more than 10% year over year. The quarter started off slowly with a delayed tax season but picked up meaningfully in March with double-digit growth year over year, which continued into April. In the first quarter, the GMV growth was sourced from new merchants added during the quarter and also an impressive increase of nearly 80% year over year from our direct-to-consumer marketplace channel.

Acima 本季的 GMV 是自 2021 年提前以來第一季的最高水平，這得益於申請量同比增長超過 10%。由於稅收季節推遲，本季開局緩慢，但 3 月出現明顯回升，同比增長達到兩位數，並且這種勢頭持續到了 4 月份。第一季度，GMV 的成長不僅來自於本季新增的商家，也來自於我們直接面向消費者的市場管道，較去年同期成長近 80%。

Our sales team's success in onboarding new merchants reinforces our diversified lineup and minimizes concentration risk. And this quarter, our top 10 retailers represented just over 30% of GMV. Our largest product category, furniture, only represented approximately 40% of GMV in the first quarter compared to approximately 45% last year. Acima revenues grew 13.5% year over year, which was the fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, and adjusted EBITDA was up 31% from a year ago.

我們的銷售團隊成功吸收新商戶，增強了我們的多元化陣容，並最大限度地降低了集中風險。本季度，我們的前 10 家零售商佔 GMV 的 30% 多一點。我們最大的產品類別家具在第一季僅佔 GMV 的 40% 左右，而去年同期約為 45%。Acima 營收年增 13.5%，這是連續第五個季度實現兩位數成長，調整後的 EBITDA 年成長 31%。

Adjusted EBITDA margins were up 170 basis points from Q1 of 2024, driven by three main factors. First is the multi-quarter run of strong GMV growth that is now producing higher returns as more of those customers are staying on rent longer and driving a larger portfolio. Second is that Acima's loss rate of 8.9% for the first quarter declined 70 basis points year over year and 10 basis points sequentially, which aligns with our expectations, as trade down has given us the ability to tighten underwriting in certain high-risk segments.

調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率較 2024 年第一季上漲了 170 個基點，主要受三大因素推動。首先是連續多個季度的強勁 GMV 成長，現在產生了更高的回報，因為越來越多的客戶租房時間更長，並推動了更大的投資組合。其次，Acima 第一季的損失率為 8.9%，年減 70 個基點，較上季下降 10 個基點，這符合我們的預期，因為交易下降使我們能夠收緊某些高風險領域的承保。

And the third element also ties back to the elevated trade-down levels Acima saw across 2024 and into 2025. We have highlighted that while those customers more often elect the earliest purchase option, which is a lower-margin result for Acima, they also often come back for a second or third lease, and those repeat leases are more profitable than the first lease, even if the customer elects the 90-day early purchase option each time. Despite that short-term impact to gross margins, we were able to expand our EBITDA margins again this quarter, consistent with our guide for the year.

第三個因素也與 Acima 在 2024 年至 2025 年所看到的降價水準上升有關。我們強調，雖然這些客戶更多地選擇最早的購買選項，這對 Acima 來說是一個利潤較低的結果，但他們也經常回來進行第二次或第三次租賃，而且這些重複租賃比第一次租賃更有利可圖，即使客戶每次都選擇提前 90 天購買的選項。儘管短期內對毛利率產生了影響，但本季我們的 EBITDA 利潤率仍能再次擴大，與年度預期一致。

On page 9, let's discuss our first quarter with Brigit. Since closing the deal on January 31, the Brigit team has maintained their momentum and ended the first quarter with over 1.2 million subscribers, which is up more than 26% year over year and up over 2% sequentially, consistent with our expectations, given the seasonal impacts of tax refund receipts, which reduced the need for liquidity solutions in Q1.

在第 9 頁，我們與 Brigit 討論第一季。自 1 月 31 日完成交易以來，Brigit 團隊一直保持著良好的發展勢頭，第一季結束時用戶數量超過 120 萬，同比增長超過 26%，環比增長超過 2%，這與我們的預期一致，考慮到退稅收入的季節性影響，這減少了第一季度對流動性解決方案的需求。

ARPU, or average revenue per user, was $12.88 on a monthly basis during the two months following the acquisition, up nearly 6% from the corresponding period a year ago from a combination of user mix shift between Brigit's Plus and Premium plans, improved revenue collection models, and the contribution from expedited transfer fees. The subscription income made up about three-fourth of Brigit's revenue, with the balance coming from the expedited transfer fees in the marketplace through which Brigit receives affiliate income.

在收購後的兩個月內，ARPU（即每用戶平均收入）為每月 12.88 美元，較去年同期增長近 6%，這得益於 Brigit 的 Plus 和 Premium 計劃之間的用戶結構轉變、收入收集模式的改進以及快速轉賬費用的貢獻。訂閱收入約佔布里吉特收入的四分之三，其餘收入則來自布里吉特獲得聯盟收入的市場上的快速轉讓費用。

At quarter-end, Brigit finished with approximately $49 million of cash advance volume on the balance sheet after making over $335 million in advances from the start of the year, a 27% increase from Q1 of 2024. The shorter duration advances result in capital efficiency, while enabling the team to quickly adjust underwriting and turn over the book within two or three weeks rather than months or quarters to manage risk in response to changing market conditions.

截至季末，Brigit 資產負債表上的現金預付款額約為 4,900 萬美元，自年初以來已預付超過 3.35 億美元，較 2024 年第一季成長 27%。較短期限的預付款可提高資本效率，同時使團隊能夠快速調整承保並在兩到三週內（而不是幾個月或幾個季度內）完成承保，以管理風險並應對不斷變化的市場條件。

For the two months following the acquisition, Brigit's cash advance loss rate was 2.4%, defined as cash advance losses divided by total originations in the period. In terms of financial metrics, Brigit recorded $32 million of revenue and $11 million of adjusted EBITDA for the February and March ownership period, with top line result representing an increase of about 35% against Brigit's performance from the corresponding period a year ago.

在收購後的兩個月內，Brigit 的現金預付損失率為 2.4%，定義為現金預付損失除以該期間的總發放金額。在財務指標方面，Brigit 在 2 月和 3 月的所有權期間實現了 3,200 萬美元的收入和 1,100 萬美元的調整後 EBITDA，與去年同期相比，Brigit 的業績增長了約 35%。

Let's move to the Rent-A-Center results starting on page 10. Beginning this quarter, we combined our Rent-A-Center segment and the Franchising segment to align with our organizational structure and how this segment will be managed. Their results will be presented on a combined basis going forward.

讓我們從第 10 頁開始查看 Rent-A-Center 的結果。從本季開始，我們將租賃中心部門和特許經營部門合併，以符合我們的組織結構以及該部門的管理方式。他們的結果將在未來以合併的方式呈現。

From a mapping standpoint, franchise merchandise sales will now be reflected in merchandise sales and royalty income will now be presented in other revenues. There was no change to the bulk of Rent-A-Center's revenue, which is rentals and fees.

從映射的角度來看，特許經營商品銷售額現在將反映在商品銷售額中，而特許權使用費收入現在將顯示在其他收入中。Rent-A-Center 的大部分收入（租金和費用）沒有變化。

With that context, Rent-A-Center delivered revenue of $489 million, down 4.9% from the year ago quarter due to 110 fewer company-owned stores after the consolidation and franchising efforts in the second half of 2024. This outcome was consistent with the mid-single-digit setback we highlighted on our last call.

在此背景下，Rent-A-Center 的營收為 4.89 億美元，較去年同期下降 4.9%，原因是 2024 年下半年整合和特許經營後公司自營門市減少了 110 家。這結果與我們上次電話會議中強調的中位數挫折一致。

Same-store sales were down 2% year over year, reflecting fewer deliveries in the first quarter relative to the prior year period, due primarily to our decision to exit certain product categories and tightened underwriting. Streamlining our lineup of lower profitability items will impact demand in the near term but protect our margins in the longer term. In terms of the product mix, furniture and appliances represented approximately 66% of revenue, which was consistent with the year ago and sequential periods.

同店銷售額年減 2%，反映出第一季的交付量與去年同期相比有所減少，這主要是由於我們決定退出某些產品類別並收緊承保。精簡獲利能力較低的產品陣容將在短期內影響需求，但長遠來看可以保護我們的利潤率。從產品結構來看，家具和家電約佔營收的66%，與去年同期和連續時期持平。

Rent-A-Center's adjusted EBITDA was $72 million, down 14% from the first quarter of 2024 due to less rental income, as I mentioned. As our digital efforts continue to transform our service model, we expect to operate more efficiently and over time, reduce the fixed cost infrastructure. For the first quarter, e-commerce represented approximately 27% of total lease-to-own revenue, up slightly from both the year ago period and sequentially.

正如我所提到的，Rent-A-Center 的調整後 EBITDA 為 7,200 萬美元，較 2024 年第一季下降 14%，原因是租金收入減少。隨著我們的數位化努力不斷改變我們的服務模式，我們期望更有效率地運營，並隨著時間的推移減少固定成本基礎設施。第一季度，電子商務約佔租賃總收入的 27%，較去年同期和上一季均略有成長。

Rent-A-Center's loss rate finished at 4.6% for the first quarter, an improvement of 10 basis points year over year and 40 basis points sequentially. Our targeted tightening in the back half of 2024 is benefiting the health of the portfolio. But in contrast to Acima, it has a bigger impact to the size of Rent-A-Center's portfolio.

Rent-A-Center 第一季的虧損率為 4.6%，較去年同期改善 10 個基點，較上一季改善 40 個基點。我們在 2024 年下半年實施的目標緊縮政策有助於投資組合的健康。但與 Acima 相比，它對 Rent-A-Center 投資組合規模的影響更大。

Acima benefits from trade-down in real time at the point of sale, whereas Rent-A-Center has not realized this benefit yet. If the macro backdrop does deteriorate, Rent-A-Center could also see a trade-down impact and an uptick in demand.

Acima 從銷售點的即時降價中獲益，而 Rent-A-Center 尚未意識到這一好處。如果宏觀環境確實惡化，Rent-A-Center 也可能面臨交易減少和需求上升的影響。

Let's cover our liquidity and capital allocation policies on slide 11. When the market is characterized by heightened volatility and uncertainty, it is reassuring to have a durable business model, a strong balance sheet, reliable access to funding and bedrock principles for allocating capital. Coming off the holiday shopping season and supported by tax refund payments, our business generated over $127 million of free cash flow in the first quarter, up substantially from $34 million in the prior year.

讓我們在第 11 張投影片上介紹我們的流動性和資本配置政策。當市場波動性和不確定性加劇時，擁有持久的商業模式、強勁的資產負債表、可靠的融資管道和資本配置的基本原則是令人安心的。在假期購物季結束後以及退稅支持下，我們的業務在第一季產生了超過 1.27 億美元的自由現金流，較前一年的 3,400 萬美元大幅成長。

We are committed to investing for the future, but we are reassured that if we choose to moderate our growth, the business can generate meaningful cash flow. We finished the first quarter with $312 million in liquidity between cash on hand and our revolver availability.

我們致力於為未來投資，但我們確信，如果我們選擇適度成長，業務就能產生有意義的現金流。第一季結束時，我們的現金和可用循環信貸額度之間的流動資金為 3.12 億美元。

Despite the expectation for continued growth at Acima and Brigit, we expect liquidity to improve across the course of the year, thanks to the cash generated from the Rent-A-Center segment. And while it is not expected to be needed in the near term, Brigit's Instant Cash advance receivable balance can deleverage opportunistically in the future to potentially upsize the company's revolver capacity.

儘管預計 Acima 和 Brigit 將繼續成長，但我們預計流動性將在全年有所改善，這要歸功於 Rent-A-Center 部門產生的現金。儘管預計短期內不需要，但 Brigit 的即時現金預支應收餘額可以在未來機會上去槓桿，從而有可能擴大公司的循環信貸能力。

With the profile of our existing balance sheet, we are confident that Upbound can support our capital allocation priorities, which continue to focus on investments in the business, supporting the dividend and delevering. As for leverage, our net leverage ratio was approximately 2.9 times on March 31, up slightly from 2.7 times at year-end, reflecting the closure of the Brigit transaction.

憑藉我們現有資產負債表的狀況，我們相信 Upbound 可以支持我們的資本配置重點，即繼續專注於業務投資、支持股息和去槓桿。至於槓桿率，3 月 31 日我們的淨槓桿率約為 2.9 倍，略高於年底的 2.7 倍，反映了 Brigit 交易的結束。

Let's shift to our financial outlook, beginning with the potential impacts of tariff changes. The introduction of the new tariff schedule did not directly impact our first quarter results. The turbulence associated with the implementation and the response by other countries has impacted market expectations and consumer confidence with potential implications for lower investment, limited hiring, and higher inflation in the broader economy. In response, many of Rent-A-Center suppliers, which are the same for Acima's merchants, have diversified or are diversifying their global supply lines by shifting manufacturing to low-cost, low-tariff regions or even nearshoring their operations to Central America, so they are better prepared for however the final trade deals land.

讓我們轉向財務展望，首先從關稅變化的潛在影響開始。新關稅表的推出並沒有直接影響我們第一季的業績。該計劃的實施和其他國家的反應所帶來的動盪已經影響了市場預期和消費者信心，並可能造成整體經濟投資下降、招聘受限和通膨上升。作為回應，許多 Rent-A-Center 供應商（與 Acima 的商家一樣）已經或正在透過將製造業務轉移到低成本、低關稅地區，甚至將業務轉移到中美洲近岸地區，實現全球供應線多元化，因此，無論最終貿易協議如何，他們都能更好地做好準備。

We are also assessing alternative suppliers who may be less impacted by potential tariffs based on their manufacturing and sourcing footprint. Overall, we believe Rent-A-Center's direct tariff exposure is modest. Furniture and appliances, our two largest categories at Rent-A-Center, over 70% of the expected 2025 purchase volume is assembled in the US, with much of the balance sourced from Vietnam, Taiwan, India, and Mexico.

我們還根據製造和採購足跡評估可能受潛在關稅影響較小的替代供應商。整體而言，我們認為 Rent-A-Center 的直接關稅風險適中。家具和家電是 Rent-A-Center 最大的兩大類別，預計 2025 年採購量的 70% 以上是在美國組裝的，其餘大部分來自越南、台灣、印度和墨西哥。

Our direct from China exposure is less than 20% of the year-to-date orders, and that volume is nearly all computers and gaming consoles where certain exemptions currently apply. Rent-A-Center's top suppliers in those categories are actively adjusting their supply chains in response to the targeted tariffs, which we expect will help offset any exposure to possible pricing actions.

我們從中國直接採購的訂單不到今年迄今訂單的 20%，而且該數量幾乎涵蓋了目前適用某些豁免的所有電腦和遊戲機。Rent-A-Center 在這些類別中的頂級供應商正在積極調整其供應鏈以應對目標關稅，我們預計這將有助於抵消任何可能的定價行動帶來的風險。

Let's spend a moment on the unique element of Rent-A-Center's model and how we are different than a traditional retailer. In this environment, inventory is critical, and Rent-A-Center has a natural buffer to potential tariff impacts through the floor inventory and any merchandise that is returned to be re-rented. It allows us to meet demand and manage our margins without raising prices on most items.

讓我們花點時間來了解 Rent-A-Center 模式的獨特之處以及我們與傳統零售商的不同之處。在這種環境下，庫存至關重要，而 Rent-A-Center 透過場地庫存和任何退回重新出租的商品，對潛在的關稅影響具有天然的緩衝作用。它使我們能夠滿足需求並管理利潤，而無需提高大多數商品的價格。

From a consumer behavior standpoint, Rent-A-Center's customers have historically returned rented merchandise at a higher rate in difficult times, mainly to protect the relationship they have with the brand. Rent-A-Center expects that will be a key factor towards mitigating its charge-off rate, while also maintaining inventory levels and creating new opportunities for re-rentals.

從消費者行為的角度來看，Rent-A-Center 的客戶歷來在困難時期以更高的比例歸還租賃商品，主要是為了維護他們與品牌的關係。Rent-A-Center 預計這將成為降低其沖銷率的關鍵因素，同時還能維持庫存水準並創造新的再租賃機會。

On the go-to-market side, we have two primary levers when originating a lease-to-own agreement, which are the weekly payment and the term to achieve full ownership. Each of these can be adjusted on the margin, meaning by $1 or $2 per week, or by adding an extra few weeks at the end of the term to preserve the affordable access and price points that our customers prioritize, while passing on any price increases. We believe these efforts will limit any potential pricing shocks and minimize the impact on consumer demand, while also still supporting our sales enablement efforts at our merchants during such an uncertain time.

在市場進入方面，我們在製定租賃購買協議時有兩個主要槓桿，即每週付款和實現完全所有權的期限。每一項都可以進行邊際調整，即每週調整 1 美元或 2 美元，或在期限結束時增加幾週，以保持客戶優先考慮的可負擔的訪問權和價格點，同時轉嫁任何價格上漲。我們相信，這些努力將限制任何潛在的價格衝擊，並最大限度地減少對消費者需求的影響，同時在如此不確定的時期仍然支持我們對商家的銷售支援工作。

Our team has seen a version of this environment before during the post-COVID supply chain bottlenecks in 2021. Because of that experience and our longtime relationships with our vendors, we are reacting with speed and precision to protect our customers, our merchants and our business during this period.

我們的團隊在 2021 年新冠疫情後供應鏈瓶頸期間曾見過這種環境。由於這些經驗以及我們與供應商的長期合作關係，我們能夠快速且準確地做出反應，以在此期間保護我們的客戶、商家和業務。

Beyond our operational levers, we're also sensitive to potential changes in consumer behavior. We have not seen any slowdown in purchasing or payment behavior yet. The momentum we experienced in March continued in April with another strong GMV month. We will continue to monitor the environment, and we will carefully adapt our value proposition, our sourcing strategies, and our underwriting accordingly.

除了我們的營運槓桿之外，我們對消費者行為的潛在變化也很敏感。我們尚未看到購買或支付行為有任何放緩。我們三月的勢頭在四月得以延續，又是一個 GMV 表現強勁的月份。我們將繼續監控環境，並據此謹慎調整我們的價值主張、採購策略和承保。

Just to be clear, we see this as an opportunity in the months ahead. If the trade policies result in real or perceived pressure on non- and near-prime household liquidity, which causes the lenders above us to tighten further, we expect to benefit from further trade-down, our Brigit business, which should also benefit from more consumers looking for liquidity or looking for ways to save money and/or for budgeting insights.

需要明確的是，我們認為這是未來幾個月的一個機會。如果貿易政策導致非優質和近優質家庭流動性面臨實際或感知壓力，從而導致我們上方的貸方進一步收緊，我們預計將受益於進一步的降級，我們的 Brigit 業務也將受益於更多尋求流動性或尋找省錢方法和/或預算見解的消費者。

In terms of how it affects our guidance, these currents and countercurrents mean less visibility into the quarterly cadence of our results for the year. However, Acima's momentum reinforces the resilience of our model and gives us the confidence that Upbound is well positioned to achieve the guidance for 2025 that we shared on our prior call.

就其如何影響我們的指導而言，這些順流和逆流意味著我們今年的季度業績節奏的可見度降低。然而，Acima 的發展勢頭增強了我們模型的彈性，並使我們相信 Upbound 完全有能力實現我們在上次電話會議上分享的 2025 年指引。

We had a very strong first quarter and are confident in our ability to successfully manage through uncertain economic times as we have demonstrated over the years. As a result, we are pleased to tighten our ranges and raise the midpoint of our full year 2025 targets for revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and non-GAAP diluted EPS.

我們第一季的表現非常強勁，我們對自己成功度過不確定的經濟時期的能力充滿信心，正如我們多年來所證明的那樣。因此，我們很高興收緊我們的範圍並提高 2025 年全年收入、調整後 EBITDA 和非 GAAP 稀釋每股收益目標的中點。

As we build towards the full year, we are sharing our initial view on the second quarter with revenues ranging from $1.05 billion to $1.15 billion, adjusted EBITDA of $125 million to $135 million, and non-GAAP EPS from $1 to $1.10 for the quarter. At the segment level, we expect Acima to deliver low double-digit GMV and revenue growth with EBITDA margins slightly better than the year ago period. These charge-offs are expected to remain stable sequentially.

隨著我們邁向全年，我們分享了對第二季度的初步看法：本季營收在 10.5 億美元至 11.5 億美元之間，調整後 EBITDA 在 1.25 億美元至 1.35 億美元之間，非 GAAP EPS 在 1 美元至 1.10 美元之間。在細分市場層面，我們預計 Acima 將實現低兩位數的 GMV 和營收成長，EBITDA 利潤率將略好於去年同期。預計這些沖銷額將保持連續穩定。

Rent-A-Center's revenue should follow the same seasonal sequential path as 2024 with a mid-single-digit step-back in Q2 compared to Q1, with EBITDA margins down slightly sequentially despite an improvement in loss rates. Brigit's Q2 revenue will reflect a full quarter of ownership with expected mid-teens EBITDA margins and a net advance loss rate similar to Q1.

Rent-A-Center 的收入應遵循與 2024 年相同的季節性連續路徑，第二季度與第一季度相比將出現中等個位數的回落，儘管虧損率有所改善，但 EBITDA 利潤率仍將環比略有下降。Brigit 的第二季營收將反映整個季度的所有權，預計 EBITDA 利潤率將達到十幾歲，淨預付損失率與第一季相似。

For Brigit, let me highlight a classification item. Their administrative costs will be reported in Upbound's corporate segment, which elevates Brigit's segment reported EBITDA results compared to the original guide, which at the time, represented the business results on a stand-alone basis. We implemented this reporting element for consistency with our other business segments, but these expenses will be counted as a deduction to Brigit's results when calculating the 2026 performance-based earnout.

對於布里吉特，讓我強調一下分類項目。他們的管理費用將在 Upbound 的公司部門中報告，與當時代表獨立業務結果的原始指南相比，這將提高 Brigit 部門報告的 EBITDA 結果。我們實施此報告要素是為了與我們的其他業務部門保持一致，但在計算 2026 年基於績效的收益時，這些費用將計入 Brigit 的業績扣除額。

Upbound's original guide for Brigit this year was $25 million to $30 million of EBITDA. But with the reclass of certain expenses to corporate, the segment results should be $35 million to $40 million.

Upbound 最初為 Brigit 提供的今年的 EBITDA 預期為 2500 萬至 3000 萬美元。但由於某些費用重新歸類為企業費用，該部門的業績應達到 3,500 萬至 4,000 萬美元。

Again, this change is net neutral on a consolidated basis. As a result, our corporate costs will be slightly higher in 2025 than 2024 in the mid-to-high single-digit area. Also at the corporate level, we are modeling one interest rate reduction in September. 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 the shares issued for the Brigit acquisition.

再次強調，從合併角度來看，這項變化是中性的。因此，我們 2025 年的企業成本將比 2024 年略高，處於中高個位數區間。此外，在公司層面，我們正在模擬9月的一次降息。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 5890 萬股，其中包括為收購 Brigit 而發行的股票。

For the year, we are revising revenues up to be in the $4.6 billion to $4.75 billion range, adjusted EBITDA to be $510 million to $540 million, and we're tightening our full year guide of non-GAAP EPS to a range of $4 per share to $4.40 per share. The midpoint of our revised guidance compared to 2024 represents an increase in revenue of more than 8%, an increase in adjusted EBITDA of nearly 11%, and an increase in non-GAAP EPS of about 10% with no share repurchases assumed.

我們將今年的營收上調至 46 億美元至 47.5 億美元之間，調整後的 EBITDA 為 5.1 億美元至 5.4 億美元，並將全年非 GAAP EPS 指引收緊至每股 4 美元至每股 4.40 美元之間。與 2024 年相比，我們修訂後的指引中點代表營收成長 8% 以上、調整後 EBITDA 成長近 11%、非 GAAP EPS 成長約 10%，且假設不進行股票回購。

We feel very well positioned today, given our experienced team, our resilient business model, our underwriting expertise, diversified product offerings, a strong balance sheet, and long experience serving the non-prime consumer.

鑑於我們經驗豐富的團隊、靈活的業務模式、承保專業知識、多樣化的產品供應、強勁的資產負債表以及長期服務非優質消費者的經驗，我們今天感覺自己處於非常有利的地位。

Let's wrap up with some key takeaways. For our stakeholders, it is critical to recognize that this was a milestone quarter for our business. On the operational and strategic growth side, we closed on the Brigit acquisition and welcome their team to the Upbound family.

讓我們總結一下一些關鍵要點。對於我們的利害關係人來說，至關重要的是認識到這是我們業務的一個里程碑季度。在營運和策略成長方面，我們完成了對 Brigit 的收購，並歡迎他們的團隊加入 Upbound 大家庭。

We added a sixth quarter to Acima's run of strong GMV growth, and we took targeted actions to spur Rent-A-Center's growth, while delivering P&L results ahead of our guidance. At the Upbound level, as previously disclosed, we successfully resolved the CFPB matter after their voluntary dismissal with prejudice. This was a long-standing regulatory matter involving Acima that we are pleased is behind us with no changes to our business or financial penalty.

我們為 Acima 的 GMV 強勁成長增添了第六個季度，我們採取了有針對性的行動來刺激 Rent-A-Center 的成長，同時實現了超越我們預期的損益結果。在 Upbound 層面，如前所述，在 CFPB 自願撤銷訴訟後，我們成功解決了這個案件。這是涉及 Acima 的長期監管問題，我們很高興這個問題已經解決，我們的業務或經濟處罰沒有任何變化。

As I shift into the CEO role next month, I want to emphasize that our team is committed to staying on our strategic course, which is to be the holistic financial platform dedicated to the underserved consumer that seamlessly improves our users' financial lives and reduces their financial stress. Our fundamental priorities will remain hyper-focused on delivering consolidated topline growth through combining our broad set of capabilities with our unwavering commitment to our customers and our merchants.

下個月我將接任執行長一職，我想強調的是，我們的團隊致力於堅持我們的策略方針，即成為一個致力於服務不足的消費者的整體金融平台，無縫改善用戶的財務生活並減輕他們的財務壓力。我們的基本優先事項仍將高度集中於透過將我們廣泛的能力與對客戶和商家的堅定承諾相結合來實現合併的收入成長。

We will also elevate our operational performance and our collaboration across segments to drive innovation and efficiencies in our products and processes. And finally, we will deploy capital effectively towards those goals and towards shareholder returns. Together, we believe we are well positioned to achieve sustainable value creation for all of our stakeholders. Thank you all for your time this morning. Operator, you may now open the line for questions.

我們還將提升我們的營運績效和跨部門協作，以推動我們的產品和流程的創新和效率。最後，我們將有效地部署資本以實現這些目標並回報股東。我們相信，我們有能力為所有利害關係人創造可持續的價值。感謝大家今天上午抽出時間。接線員，您現在可以打開熱線來回答問題了。

(Operator Instructions) Brad Thomas, KeyBanc Capital Markets.

（操作員指示）Brad Thomas，KeyBanc 資本市場。

Mitch, thanks for all the help. It's been a pleasure working with you all the years. And Fahmi, congratulations on the new opportunity for you. I wanted to start with a tariff question and was -- you gave some very helpful commentary there about your exposure and some levers that you can pull. But I was wondering if you could just give us a little bit more color in terms of what, if anything, you're seeing in terms of price increases from suppliers to the Rent-A-Center stores and what you're expecting going forward?

米奇，謝謝你的幫忙。多年來我很榮幸能與您合作。法赫米，恭喜你獲得新的機會。我想從關稅問題開始，並且——您對您的風險敞口以及您可以採取的一些措施給出了一些非常有用的評論。但我想知道您是否可以向我們提供更多細節，說明您所看到的 Rent-A-Center 商店供應商的價格上漲情況以及您對未來的預期？

Brad, thanks for the question. So yeah, a lot of uncertainty right now and a lot of headlines around tariffs. And to date, we have not encountered any price changes at all across the board. And in certain segments or certain categories, TVs and even in certain appliances, we've actually seen a reduction of what we're buying today versus the same time last year. So to date, no price increases.

布拉德，謝謝你的提問。是的，目前存在著許多不確定性，而且有很多關於關稅的頭條新聞。到目前為止，我們還沒有遇到任何全面的價格變化。在某些領域或某些類別中，電視甚至某些家電，與去年同期相比，我們實際上已經看到今天的購買量減少。因此到目前為止，價格還沒有上漲。

Of course, that can change relatively quickly. But as of this morning, no changes to any of our prices. But I think also -- and just as important, we mentioned it in the prepared remarks, is our ability and demonstrated track record of being able to adjust our pricing by the weekly payment $1 or $2 a week or even adding just a few weeks to the end of the term can make up for any price increases that we've seen in the past, and we're confident we can pass that on again if need be.

當然，這種情況可能會很快改變。但截至今天早上，我們的價格沒有任何變化。但我認為——同樣重要的是，我們在準備好的評論中提到了這一點，我們有能力並且有良好的記錄，能夠通過每週支付 1 或 2 美元來調整我們的定價，或者甚至在期限結束時增加幾週，可以彌補我們過去看到的任何價格上漲，我們有信心，如果需要，我們可以再次傳遞這種價格上漲。

And I also want to keep in mind that if it does happen and inflation does tick up, the benefits of our -- of the business model itself and some of the upside we'll see from more folks choosing lease-to-own, whether it's through RAC or Acima, as we said, we view it as potential upside to the story and to the guide this year.

我還想記住，如果這種情況真的發生，通貨膨脹確實上升，那麼我們的商業模式本身的好處以及我們將從更多人選擇租賃購買（無論是透過 RAC 還是 Acima）中看到的一些好處，正如我們所說的那樣，我們認為這是今年故事和指南的潛在好處。

So we'll watch it very closely. We'll monitor it, and we'll be able to adapt as we see things kind of get finalized, hopefully, over the next few weeks.

因此我們會密切注意。我們將對其進行監控，並隨著事情的最終確定而做出調整，希望能夠在接下來的幾週內完成。

Yes. Brad, this is Mitch. I'll just add to some Fahmi's comments there. As he said in the prepared comments, we expect any price increase to be pretty modest because something like 75% of the furniture and appliances we get today are made in the USA anyhow.

是的。布拉德，這是米奇。我只是想補充一些 Fahmi 的評論。正如他在準備好的評論中所說，我們預計任何價格上漲都將是相當溫和的，因為我們今天購買的大約 75% 的家具和電器都是在美國製造的。

Very little exposure really to China. That's mostly the game consoles, I think you said in your prepared comments, Fahmi, game consoles and computers, which at this point are tariff exempt. And we and our suppliers are looking to put them together in the US versus getting them from China and all those kind of things. So it's pretty modest.

對中國的接觸確實很少。法赫米，我想您在準備好的評論中說過，主要是遊戲機、遊戲機和電腦，目前這些都免關稅。我們和我們的供應商希望在美國組裝它們，而不是從中國採購等等。所以它相當謙虛。

Although on the other hand, as Fahmi mentioned, keep in mind that when the $1 or $2 a week that Fahmi was mentioning, if we have to add $1 a week to our rates, on average, that's a 4% price increase and it's only $1 to the customer, yet that covers 4%.

但另一方面，正如 Fahmi 所提到的，請記住，當 Fahmi 提到每週 1 美元或 2 美元時，如果我們必須每週在費率上增加 1 美元，平均而言，這就是 4% 的價格上漲，而對客戶來說只有 1 美元，但這卻覆蓋了 4%。

If we add a month to our average term of about 15 months, what's that, 7%, 1 over 15. So if you add a month, it's 7%. You add $1, it's 4%. And also, when you think about the fact that our margins on the Rent-A-Center side are pretty high, if you have a $100 price increase somewhere, cost increase in our average margin, you know our pricing model, Brad, more like about 2 times cost is our cash price and 2 times cash price is our rent-to-own amount at least contractually for someone to take ownership. So you're talking about -- if you get $100 cost, you're going to have about $400 worth of revenue against it.

如果我們在大約 15 個月的平均期限上增加一個月，那麼這個比率是多少？ 7%，即 1/15。所以如果加上一個月，就是 7%。你加 1 美元，就是 4%。此外，當您考慮到我們在 Rent-A-Center 方面的利潤率相當高時，如果某個地方的價格上漲了 100 美元，我們的平均利潤率中成本就會增加，您知道我們的定價模式，布拉德，更像是成本的 2 倍是我們的現金價格，而現金價格的 2 倍是我們的租賃購買金額，更像是成本的 2 倍是我們的現金價格，而現金價格的 2 倍是我們的租賃購買金額，至少在合約中是這樣，以便有人擁有所有權。所以你說的是——如果你的成本是 100 美元，那麼你將獲得大約 400 美元的收入。

So what we saw during COVID when supply chain got tight and we had to raise prices as costs went up, it actually helped same-store sales and so forth. So you get trade-down, to Fahmi's point, plus actually some higher prices don't hurt, and you don't eliminate people's affordability because it's adding $1 or $2 or a month. So we're not -- it's not going to affect us the way it would affect maybe traditional retail.

因此，我們看到，在疫情期間，當供應鏈變得緊張，成本上升，我們不得不提高價格時，這實際上有助於同店銷售等等。所以，正如 Fahmi 所說，你可以進行降價交易，而且實際上提高一些價格並沒有什麼壞處，而且你不會因為每月增加 1 美元或 2 美元而失去人們的承受能力。所以我們不會——它不會像影響傳統零售業那樣影響我們。

And I guess, the last point, you got to remember, in this environment, our inventory -- we have a lot of inventory, and about half the inventory that we run on the Rent-A-Center side gets returned. So it's in our system about 15 months on average. So all the inventory we have now really becomes our friend in this case.

我想，最後一點，你必須記住，在這種環境下，我們的庫存——我們有很多庫存，我們在 Rent-A-Center 方面運營的庫存中大約有一半被退回。因此，它在我們的系統中平均需要大約 15 個月的時間。因此，在這種情況下，我們現在擁有的所有庫存實際上都變成了我們的朋友。

And the cost is already there, and it's going to be in our system about 15 months. So our current inventory is our friend, as I said. So lots of reasons not to be near as concerned as maybe traditional retail.

成本已經存在，並將在我們的系統中持續約 15 個月。正如我所說，我們目前的庫存就是我們的朋友。因此有許多理由不必像傳統零售那樣擔心。

That's very helpful. For my follow-up question, I wanted to ask about Brigit. It seems like it has a very exciting outlook just on a stand-alone basis, and again, lots to be excited about there. How are you thinking about the road map for potentially integrating it more across the business and synergies that you might be able to have from owning it and the timeline for that?

這非常有幫助。我的後續問題是想問布里吉特。看起來，僅從獨立的角度來看，它的前景就非常令人興奮，而且，還有很多值得興奮的地方。您如何考慮將其進一步整合到整個業務中的路線圖以及您可能從擁有它中獲得的協同效應以及時間表？

Yeah, Brad, I would say, yes, to your point, the results have been really good, better than even we expected to start off with the first couple of months of ownership with revenue up over 35%, subscribers up 26%.

是的，布拉德，我想說，是的，正如你所說，結果非常好，甚至比我們預期的還要好，在擁有所有權的頭幾個月，收入增長了 35% 以上，訂閱用戶增長了 26%。

And that is actually -- as we said in the prepared comments, we have started e-mail campaigns of introducing Rent-A-Center and Acima customers to the Brigit brand, but we kind of waited till after tax season had kind of gotten underway and almost finished up just to hopefully be more well timed as far as our reaching out to those customers.

事實上，正如我們在準備好的評論中所說的那樣，我們已經開始透過電子郵件開展活動，向 Rent-A-Center 和 Acima 客戶介紹 Brigit 品牌，但我們一直等到納稅季節開始並快要結束之後，才希望能夠更及時地接觸到這些客戶。

So good progress there, on track. As we said, we're going to start with marketing collaboration. And then, we've also started down the path of some of the data collaboration and sharing data, especially around some of the cash flow insights that we've highlighted with Brigit and some of that proprietary modeling and just consumer transparency in their data and their information.

進展良好，一切順利。正如我們所說，我們將從行銷合作開始。然後，我們也開始進行一些數據協作和共享數據，特別是圍繞我們與 Brigit 一起強調的一些現金流洞察以及一些專有模型以及消費者數據和資訊的透明度。

So that's on the come. I do think you'll start seeing that maybe later in the year being something that we utilize across all of our brands to not only approve more customers, but also mitigate losses as well. So I would say we're on track from kind of the integration plan and still super excited about having them part of the Upbound Group.

這就是即將發生的事情。我確實認為，也許在今年晚些時候，你會開始看到我們將在所有品牌中採用這種方法，不僅可以批准更多客戶，還可以減少損失。所以我想說，我們的整合計劃正在按計劃進行，並且仍然非常高興他們能夠成為 Upbound Group 的一部分。

Very helpful. Thank you so much.

非常有幫助。太感謝了。

Bobby Griffin, Raymond James

鮑比·格里芬、雷蒙德·詹姆斯

Congrats on a good start to the year. I guess, firstly, I wanted to go back to Brigit. It looks like the business, as you guys were talking about, is off to a great start. Can you help us understand a little bit of the seasonality of this business? You mentioned tax refunds, needless liquidity, but the EBITDA for two months was pretty good.

恭喜您今年有一個好的開始。我想，首先，我想回到布里吉特身邊。正如你們談論的那樣，業務似乎已經有了一個很好的開始。您能幫助我們了解這個業務的季節性嗎？您提到了退稅、不必要的流動性，但兩個月的 EBITDA 相當不錯。

Just kind of asking in the context if we take this two-month rate and even look at it at the changes in guide to account for the accounting differences, it still looks like the business is off to a very good start. So is there some seasonality we need to keep in mind as tax refunds roll off or different things like that?

只是想問一下，如果我們採用這兩個月的利率，甚至看看指南的變化以解釋會計差異，那麼看起來業務仍然有一個很好的開始。那麼，隨著退稅的減少或諸如此類的事情，我們是否需要記住一些季節性因素？

Yeah, Bobby, there is some seasonality, especially when it comes to the margin profile. Q1 is going to be the highest margin profile for the year. As we mentioned, you have a little bit less marketing spend, given liquidity is pretty flush during tax season. So we pulled back a little bit on the marketing side. You also have seasonally low losses.

是的，Bobby，有一些季節性，特別是在利潤率方面。第一季的利潤率將是今年最高的。正如我們所提到的，由於納稅季節流動性非常充裕，您的行銷支出會稍微減少一些。因此我們在行銷方面稍微退縮了一些。您的季節性損失也較低。

So from a margin standpoint, the 35%-ish margins that we posted for the two months of ownership, that will come down. And we said that in the guide, call it, mid-teens in the second quarter. So there is some seasonality when it relates to kind of marketing spend and margins, adding subscribers as well. It's pretty flat Q4 to Q1. That's been the trend over the last few years. That continued this year. But then you should start seeing it pick up post tax season.

因此，從利潤率的角度來看，我們在擁有該物業兩個月期間公佈的 35% 左右的利潤率將會下降。我們在指南中說過，第二季的成長率將達到十幾歲。因此，當涉及到行銷支出和利潤以及增加訂閱者時，也存在一些季節性。第四季與第一季相比基本持平。這是過去幾年的趨勢。今年這種情況仍在持續。但隨後你會看到它在稅收季節後開始回升。

Collections is strong.

收藏能力很強。

And the collections have been good.

而且收藏品也很好。

In the first quarter. That helps margins --

在第一季。這有助於提高利潤率--

Low-single digits. And so, margins are good in the first quarter. We'll start spending a little bit more on the marketing side. You should see an uptick in the number of subscribers in Q2 and Q3.

低個位數。因此，第一季的利潤率良好。我們將開始在行銷方面投入更多一些。您應該會看到第二季和第三季訂閱者數量上升。

Okay. That's helpful. I appreciate that. And then, maybe secondly, kind of a different topic, but just the call-out of the test or the expansion of Acima in Mexico. Can you unpack that aspect a little bit more, just kind of how you go about that, balancing the upside scenarios, obviously, but with the risk of -- from the loss ratios or kind of going into a new market with a new product?

好的。這很有幫助。我很感激。然後，也許其次，有點不同的主題，但只是測試的呼叫或 Acima 在墨西哥的擴張。您能否更詳細地闡述這個方面，您是如何做到這一點的，顯然是平衡上行情景，但也要考慮損失率或帶著新產品進入新市場的風險？

Yes. Good question, Bobby. We're pretty excited about taking Acima to Mexico. I know the team as well. And the risk of going into a new market certainly would be much, much higher had we not had Rent-A-Center down there since 2010. So with 130-some Rent-A-Center stores down there and performing well with the dollar -- the currency stuff, you don't see as much EBITDA as maybe would warrant. But in pesos, they continue to grow their profit year over year. And some of it gets lost in that currency translation, like I said.

是的。問得好，鮑比。我們非常高興能夠將 Acima 帶到墨西哥。我也了解這個團隊。如果我們自 2010 年起就沒有在當地設立 Rent-A-Center，那麼進入新市場的風險肯定會高得多。因此，儘管那裡有 130 多家 Rent-A-Center 商店，而且美元匯率表現良好，但您可能看不到應有的 EBITDA。但以比索計算，他們的利潤卻逐年成長。正如我所說，其中一些資訊在貨幣轉換過程中遺失了。

But we're doing very well down there in the Rent-A-Center stores. So we've learned a lot from a decisioning standpoint, collection standpoint and all those kind of things that Acima is going to piggyback. So I don't think there's the normal risk of going into a new market the way there would be if we hadn't already been down there with Rent-A-Center.

但我們在 Rent-A-Center 商店的業績非常好。因此，我們從決策的角度、收集的角度以及 Acima 將要搭載的所有這些方面學到了很多東西。因此，我認為，如果我們沒有透過 Rent-A-Center 進入新市場，那麼進入新市場就不會有通常的風險。

And obviously, some -- a lot of the Rent-A-Center infrastructure is going to support the Acima team as they expand down there. So we're excited about it. There's millions and millions of customers down there, as you probably realize. And it just seems like a great extension, a great growth vehicle for Acima without a lot of risk because we already know the market with our Rent-A-Center stores down there.

顯然，Rent-A-Center 的許多基礎設施將支持 Acima 團隊在那裡擴張。所以我們對此感到很興奮。您可能已經意識到，那裡有數以百萬計的客戶。對於 Acima 來說，這似乎是一個很好的延伸，一個很好的成長工具，而且沒有太大的風險，因為我們已經透過我們的 Rent-A-Center 商店了解那裡的市場。

Without a lot of capital spend either.

也不需要花費大量的資本。

Yeah, without building store. We can't -- we just can't grow Rent-A-Center fast enough down there, really. Who wants to open another 500 brick-and-mortar stores today, whether it's in the US or Mexico for that matter. And the capital expense, and you'd wonder about the investment.

是的，無需建造商店。我們不能——我們真的不能在那裡足夠快地發展 Rent-A-Center。如今，誰還想再開 500 家實體店呢，無論是在美國還是墨西哥。還有資本支出，你會對投資感到疑惑。

It's a market that from a US standpoint, makes $700 million of EBITDA, and how much you're going to put into it by opening a whole lot more Rent-A-Centers to take advantage of all the demand. But Acima, with a low capital model, obviously, is the way we believe we should grow down there.

從美國的角度來看，這個市場的 EBITDA 為 7 億美元，而透過開設更多的 Rent-A-Centers 來滿足所有需求，你需要投入多少錢？但顯然，我們認為採用低資本模式的 Acima 才是我們應該在那裡發展的方式。

Very good. And I'll add my congrats, Mitch. Best of luck in retirement. It's been great working with you, going all the way back to my research associate days. And Fahmi, look forward to continue to work with you in your new role.

非常好。我還要向你表示祝賀，米奇。祝你退休後一切順利。和你一起工作非常愉快，可以追溯到我擔任研究助理的日子。法赫米，期待在新的職位上繼續與您合作。

Thanks a lot, Bobby. Appreciate it.

非常感謝，鮑比。非常感謝。

Hoang Nguyen, TD Cowen.

Hoang Nguyen，TD Cowen。

Best of luck to your retirement, Mitch, and congrats on the new role, Fahmi. I just want to touch a little bit on Brigit. So it looks like revenue growth in 1Q was about 35%. I think in the original plan that you guys laid out, that calls for acceleration in revenue growth maybe towards the later part of this year and next year.

祝你退休一切順利，米奇，恭喜你擔任新職務，法赫米。我只是想稍微談談布里吉特。因此看起來第一季的營收成長約為 35%。我認為，你們最初制定的計劃要求在今年下半年和明年加速收入成長。

Now that you have had two months of looking into this, I mean, can you give us a little bit more color on the plan and how you guys are going to accelerate growth in Brigit going forward?

現在您已經花了兩個月的時間研究這個問題，我的意思是，您能否向我們詳細介紹一下這個計劃，以及您將如何加速布里吉特未來的發展？

Yeah, Hoang, I would say that what we've experienced over the last two months, three months since we announced the deal has been pretty much in line with what we expected, and we're on track to hit the numbers that we outlined in the initial guide for 2025 and on track to hit what we predicted for 2026.

是的，Hoang，我想說，自從我們宣布這筆交易以來，過去兩個月、三個月裡我們經歷的事情與我們的預期基本一致，我們有望實現我們在 2025 年初步指南中概述的數字，也有望實現我們對 2026 年的預測。

So nothing really has surprised us. Nothing has really changed. I think the macro backdrop is very conducive for people to need liquidity and need the products that Brigit offers, not just the Instant Cash, but the credit building and all the financial literacy tools. So we're just as excited and feel like the growth is on track based on everything that we're seeing.

所以實際上沒有什麼讓我們感到驚訝。一切都沒有真正改變。我認為宏觀背景非常有利於人們需要流動性並需要 Brigit 提供的產品，不僅是即時現金，還有信用建立和所有金融知識工具。因此，我們同樣感到興奮，並且根據我們所看到的一切，我們感覺成長正在步入正軌。

The pipeline of new products that we're piloting now, that will also add more to the bundle and actually have new bundles on the way. All of those things are kind of going to contribute to the revenue growth as well as the EBITDA expansion that we expect from '25 to '26.

我們目前正在試行的新產品線也將為捆綁產品添加更多內容，並且實際上正在推出新的捆綁產品。所有這些都將有助於我們預計 25 年至 26 年的收入成長以及 EBITDA 擴張。

So I would say, everything that we expected is on track. Nothing has slowed us down. If anything, we're more positive on the story and the integration possibilities between the three brands.

所以我想說，我們預期的一切都在按計劃進行。沒有什麼能阻礙我們前進。無論如何，我們對這三個品牌的故事和整合可能性持更積極的態度。

Yes. The cross-selling is really -- even though we waited till the tax season was winding down, they're putting a lot of good stuff together. The marketing teams are working great together very collaboratively, and the cross-selling started, as I mentioned.

是的。交叉銷售確實是——儘管我們等到納稅季節快要結束，但他們還是把很多好東西放在一起。正如我所提到的，行銷團隊合作非常愉快，交叉銷售也開始了。

And working with Zuben, Hamel, Farah, Arvind and those folks at Brigit has gone really smoothly with our marketing folks here to get that cross-selling going. So yes, if anything, we're more excited than we were a few months ago when we closed it.

我們與 Zuben、Hamel、Farah、Arvind 以及 Brigit 的同事的合作非常順利，我們的行銷人員也順利進行了交叉銷售。所以，是的，如果有的話，我們比幾個月前關閉它時更加興奮。

Got it. And I mean, as you guys cross-sell more between Brigit and, I guess, the lease-to-own business, I mean, is there an argument to be made that it's going to, I guess, reduce the cyclicality of your overall business? And can you give us some of the timeline of that cross-selling efforts that you guys are going to roll out?

知道了。我的意思是，隨著你們在 Brigit 和租賃購買業務之間進行更多交叉銷售，是否有理由認為這會降低你們整體業務的周期性？您能否向我們介紹一下你們即將推出的交叉銷售活動的時間表？

Well, the cross-selling efforts have already begun, and we've seen some good response rates from some of the e-mail campaigns that we've done for both Rent-A-Center and Acima customers, but again, still very early stages.

嗯，交叉銷售工作已經開始，而且我們為 Rent-A-Center 和 Acima 客戶開展的一些電子郵件活動的回應率也不錯，但仍然處於非常早期的階段。

As far as the business itself, I mean, I think both of our -- all of our businesses today are conducive to being recession-proof or countercyclical, meaning when times get tough, the demand for those products should go up. If you think about the lease-to-own product, what it offers from a low payment, low entry point to the flexibility with no financial commitment going forward, again, the low payment and flexibility really should drive demand in tough times.

就業務本身而言，我的意思是，我認為我們今天的所有業務都有利於抵禦經濟衰退或反週期，這意味著當經濟變得艱難時，對這些產品的需求就會上升。如果您考慮租賃購買產品，它提供從低付款、低入門點到無需未來財務承諾的靈活性，同樣，低付款和靈活性確實應該在困難時期推動需求。

And with Brigit, thinking about liquidity solutions, getting up to $250 in between paychecks, helping you understand how to save your money and maybe earn more along the way, all of those things are -- will help keep the business resilient and countercyclical.

和布里吉特一起，思考流動性解決方案，在兩次發薪之間獲得高達 250 美元的資金，幫助您了解如何省錢，並可能在此過程中賺取更多錢，所有這些都將有助於保持業務的彈性和反週期性。

Got it. Thank you. And best of luck to you both.

知道了。謝謝。祝你們好運。

Thanks.

謝謝。

Anthony Chukumba, Loop Capital

安東尼·楚昆巴，Loop Capital

Good morning and Mitch, thanks for all your help over the years. It's been great working with you through good times and bad. And Fahmi, congrats on the promotion and look forward to continuing to work with you. And also congrats on the strong start to the year.

早安，米奇，感謝您多年來的幫助。很高興能與您一起共事，無論順境或逆境。法赫米，恭喜你晉升，期待繼續與你合作。同時也祝賀您今年取得了良好的開端。

So my question -- so first question, you mentioned in the Rent-A-Center business, sort of exiting or cutting back on some lower-margin products. What specifically were those products and why were they lower margin? I'm assuming it's like just higher lease charge-off rates, but if you could just give a little bit of color on that?

所以我的問題——第一個問題，您提到在 Rent-A-Center 業務中，退出或削減一些利潤率較低的產品。這些產品具體是什麼？為什麼它們的利潤較低？我假設這只是更高的租賃沖銷率，但您能否對此進行一些解釋？

Sure, Anthony. So, on the Rent-A-Center side, those products mostly were mobile phones, handheld devices, but mostly mobile phones. Yes, to your point, we just weren't seeing the loss performance. The profitability wasn't there. A lot of demand for those types of products, obviously, but we just have to filter that demand into, hopefully, furniture and appliances, which have better losses and better profitability.

當然，安東尼。因此，在 Rent-A-Center 方面，這些產品主要是手機、手持設備，但主要是手機。是的，正如您所說，我們只是沒有看到損失的表現。盈利能力並不存在。顯然，這些類型的產品需求很大，但我們必須將這些需求過濾到家具和家電領域，因為它們的虧損更小，盈利能力更強。

So we thought it was good use of trimming the product line. It does have a little bit of a near-term headwind as far as deliveries go and maybe gross profit. But longer term, we think it will be EBITDA positive for us to eliminate those kind of low profitability type products.

因此我們認為精簡產品線是一種很好的做法。就交付量和毛利而言，它確實在短期內面臨一些阻力。但從長遠來看，我們認為淘汰這類低獲利能力的產品將對我們的 EBITDA 產生正面影響。

Yes. I think the other thing I'd add to that is, it was an easier decision too, Anthony. When you think about the two kind of self-induced reasons, we've gone from slightly positive to slightly negative same-store sales at Rent-A-Center at minus 2%.

是的。我想補充的是，這也是一個更容易的決定，安東尼。當你考慮這兩個自身原因時，Rent-A-Center 的同店銷售額就從略微正成長變成了略微負成長，下降了 2%。

The underwriting -- tightening the underwriting and then the products -- as you tighten the underwriting, we're going to approve a whole lot less of those phones anyhow because they're at a high loss rate. So they kind of go together, tightening the underwriting and getting rid of those.

承保——收緊承保，然後是產品——隨著承保收緊，我們將批准更少的手機，因為它們的損失率很高。因此，他們採取了類似的措施，加強承保並消除這些問題。

And the other thing that made it easier was that mobile phones and mobile devices are really an important product for Acima, and they do well with them. They don't have that loss problem. You need that difference in the customer. The Rent-A-Center customers is a step below income level-wise and even credit score-wise than the Acima customer, right? So you need that step-up.

另一件讓事情變得更容易的事情是，手機和行動裝置對於 Acima 來說確實是重要的產品，而且他們在這方面做得很好。他們沒有那種損失問題。您需要客戶有這樣的差異。Rent-A-Center 客戶的收入水準甚至信用評分都比 Acima 客戶低一級，對嗎？所以你需要那個進步。

And so basically, we're putting that business over in Acima. And at this point, when someone at Rent-A-Center wants a mobile phone, we're trying to get them over to Acima to get their mobile phone where they're used to underwriting for that particular product. And not many of the Rent-A-Center customers will get approved for mobile phones at Acima, but a few will. But we really need that customer to be a little higher up. And I guess, my point is, it's not like you can't lease mobile devices.

所以基本上，我們將這項業務交給了 Acima。此時，當 Rent-A-Center 的某人想要一部手機時，我們會嘗試讓他們到 Acima 購買手機，而他們通常會在那裡承保該特定產品。在 Acima，獲得手機使用許可的 Rent-A-Center 顧客不多，但有少數人可以。但我們確實需要客戶的等級稍微高一點。我想，我的觀點是，這並不意味著你不能租賃行動裝置。

You can at the Acima level, but what we found is, at the Rent-A-Center level, it's not the best product. And for those few customers at the Rent-A-Center level that should get approved, we're trying to get them over to Acima. So that's that whole strategy.

您可以在 Acima 級別使用，但我們發現，在 Rent-A-Center 級別，它不是最好的產品。對於那些應該獲得批准的 Rent-A-Center 等級的少數客戶，我們正在嘗試將他們轉到 Acima。這就是整個策略。

Got it. And just to confirm, so essentially, what you're saying is because that Acima customer is generally a higher income customer, then if they're approved for a mobile phone, there's probably going to be a lower lease charge-off rate because they are a more well hosted customer. Is that the right way to kind of think about it at a high level? I don't mean to belabor the point.

知道了。只是為了確認一下，所以本質上，您所說的是因為 Acima 客戶通常是高收入客戶，所以如果他們獲得手機批准，那麼租賃沖銷率可能會更低，因為他們是受到更好照顧的客戶。從高層次思考這個問題是否正確？我並不想過度強調這一點。

Yes. No, you're right. Our mobile phone category at Acima performs. So you can rent them. You just need to be a little higher income level than the Rent-A-Center customer.

是的。不，你是對的。Acima 的手機類別表現出色。所以你可以租用它們。您的收入水平只需​​比 Rent-A-Center 客戶高一點即可。

The approval rates that we have on -- the Acima for mobile devices is going to be pretty low because of that risk. But for those that we do approve and book, it performs in line with our expectations, and we can make some money out of it.

由於存在這種風險，我們對行動裝置的 Acima 的批准率將會非常低。但對於那些我們批准並預訂的項目，其表現符合我們的預期，我們可以從中賺到一些錢。

Of course, on a phone, you can have a low approval rate and still do a lot of business because everybody has -- everybody always wants a new phone, whereas -- unlike furniture and a refrigerator, you can do so much more with phones. You can have a low approval rate. You can really filter through and still do a lot of business. But it's just a better business for Acima than it is for Rent-A-Center.

當然，在手機上，即使批准率很低，你仍然可以做很多生意，因為每個人都有——每個人都想要一部新手機，然而——與家具和冰箱不同，你可以用手機做更多的事情。您的批准率可能會很低。您確實可以進行篩選並完成大量業務。但對 Acima 來說，這筆生意比 Rent-A-Center 更好。

Well, for whatever it's worth, I'm sticking with my iPhone 14, but thanks for that.

好吧，不管怎樣，我都會堅持使用我的 iPhone 14，但還是謝謝你。

I would have too, Anthony, if mine didn't end up in the pool last year. So I would have stuck with my iPhone 10, but --

安東尼，如果我的魚去年沒有掉進泳池的話，我也會這麼做的。所以我會繼續使用我的 iPhone 10，但是--

Got it. Thank you.

知道了。謝謝。

Thanks, Anthony.

謝謝，安東尼。

John Rowan, Janney.

約翰羅文、詹妮。

Mitch, I'll offer my congratulations on a good career. It's certainly been quite a long time, and it's been a lot of fun.

米奇，我要祝賀你事業有成。這確實已經過去了很長一段時間，而且非常有趣。

Thank you. It's been a lot of fun for me, for sure.

謝謝。對我來說這確實很有趣。

So just one -- I guess, one housekeeping question first. Just looking at kind of the non-GAAP table and what goes back into it, where should we expect things to change going forward? I'm assuming, with the CFPB matter settled and obviously the Brigit transaction behind us, those two line items are significantly reduced or kind of go away entirely. It's one of the bigger chunks out of the special items that were called out.

所以我想先問一個基本問題。只需看一下非 GAAP 表格及其內容，我們就能預期未來情況會發生哪些變化？我估計，隨著 CFPB 問題的解決以及 Brigit 交易的結束，這兩項費用將大幅減少或完全消失。這是被叫出的特殊物品中較大的物品。

Yeah. John, that legal matters line item that you're referring to in the table covers more than the CFPB matter. So you'll still see it there as we work through some of the other cases that, that relates to.

是的。約翰，您在表格中提到的法律事務項目涵蓋的內容不僅包括 CFPB 事務。因此，當我們處理與之相關的其他一些案件時，您仍然會在那裡看到它。

And yeah, we're kind of winding down some of the adjustments related to the Acima acquisition just to ramp up some of the adjustments for the Brigit acquisition in that reconciliation. So, that will take some time for us to work through.

是的，我們正在逐步減少與 Acima 收購相關的一些調整，以便在此次和解中加強對 Brigit 收購的一些調整。所以，我們需要一些時間來解決這個問題。

But as far as the legal matters go, we still are dealing with a couple of other cases. And so you should see that accrual move as we progress on those claims.

但就法律問題而言，我們仍在處理其他幾個案件。因此，隨著我們處理這些索賠的進展，您應該會看到應計金額的變動。

Okay. And then, just maybe one other kind of slight angle change on the tariff question. I've been around long enough to know that there has always been a waterline where an item requires financing, right? It used to be $300, right, where anything below $300 was really more of a cash purchase for your customer. Above that really required some type of financing.

好的。然後，也許關稅問題還有另一個輕微的角度變化。我已經在這裡待了很長時間了，我知道當某項專案需要融資時總會有一個水線，對嗎？以前是 300 美元，對吧，低於 300 美元的任何東西對於客戶來說實際上更像是現金購買。除此之外，確實需要某種類型的融資。

Is there any possibility that tariffs, whether or not they cause price inflation of goods can bring customers back into the fold because they require financing now? And maybe $300 number is a really old number. Is there kind of an updated number where that cash purchase line change -- that cash purchase line is for the consumer?

無論關稅是否會導致商品價格上漲，是否有可能讓消費者回到他們的行列，因為他們現在需要融資？也許 300 美元是一個非常古老的數字。是否有更新的數字，表明現金購買線發生了變化——該現金購買線是針對消費者的？

No, that's a good question, John. And $300 is still about the ballpark of where we do business at, $300 and above. So you're still spot on with that. And I think you're spot on with the point that especially on electronics, the deflation we've seen in TVs since they -- well, we've always seen a lot of deflation in TVs, right? Then they went up with COVID supply chain problems. And now, they've kind of cratered again on deflation.

不，這是個好問題，約翰。300 美元仍然是我們做生意的大概價格，300 美元及以上。所以你對此的看法仍然正確。我認為你的觀點完全正確，特別是在電子產品方面，自從電視出現以來，我們就看到了電視的通貨緊縮——嗯，我們總是看到電視出現很多通貨緊縮的情況，對吧？然後他們又遇到了 COVID 供應鏈問題。現在，他們又因通貨緊縮而陷入困境。

So any increases there, I dare say, would help us. And to rent more -- again, if you go back to we can add $1 or $2, we can add a month or two and easily still make it affordable for the consumer, so yes, I think it's a tailwind. And people don't -- people hesitate to believe our recession-resilient story. I think eyes roll when we talk about it, but we have a 40-year track record, or maybe I have a 40-year track record, but Rent-A-Center has a 50-year track record through different economic times. And I mentioned in my prepared comments, look at 2008.

因此我敢說，任何增加都會對我們有幫助。並且為了增加租金——再說一次，如果你回到我們可以增加 1 美元或 2 美元，我們可以增加一兩個月，並且仍然可以輕鬆地讓消費者負擔得起，所以是的，我認為這是一個順風。但人們卻不相信──人們不願意相信我們抵禦經濟衰退的故事。當我們談論它時，我想人們會翻白眼，但我們有 40 年的業績記錄，或者也許我有 40 年的業績記錄，但 Rent-A-Center 在不同經濟時期有 50 年的業績記錄。我在準備好的評論中提到，回顧 2008 年。

I mean, this is a business that's not only resilient, but outperforms in tough times. And you're seeing it with trade-down right now at Acima. Fahmi mentioned, we expect -- the first quarter got stronger as it went on, as the economy weakened. And he talked about low-double-digit growth as the quarter ended, and then April performed the same.

我的意思是，這家企業不僅具有韌性，而且在困難時期表現出色。現在，您就會在 Acima 看到降價現象。法赫米提到，我們預期──隨著經濟的減弱，第一季將會變得更加強勁。他談到本季末的低兩位數成長，四月份的表現也是如此。

So we're looking at low-double-digit growth, which is actually an acceleration from the beginning of the year at Acima. And Rent-A-Center being minus 2% is more self-induced on underwriting and those products we took out, like I mentioned.

因此，我們預計 Acima 的成長速度將達到低兩位數，這實際上是從今年年初開始的加速。而 Rent-A-Center 的負 2% 則更多是承保和我們購買的產品導致的，正如我所提到的。

In so many ways, this is a recession-resilient story. And there's a lot more -- with all the things out there right now, including the uncertainty, there's a lot more tailwind there for us than headwinds. And even the uncertainty is a tailwind in that if the consumer is uncertain, well, why would you go take on debt? Why wouldn't you just lease it and see what happens?

從很多方面來看，這是一個能夠抵禦經濟衰退的故事。而且還有很多——考慮到目前存在的所有因素，包括不確定性，對我們來說，順風比逆風多得多。即使不確定性也是有利因素，因為如果消費者不確定，那麼，為什麼還要承擔債務？為什麼你不租它然後看看會發生什麼？

And that's what we've seen in the past. And I believe that's what we'll see again, and we're already seeing it. So I think your question is a good one. There's -- it could benefit us a whole lot more than it could ever be a headwind.

這正是我們過去所看到的。我相信我們會再次看到這種情況，而且我們已經看到了。所以我認為你的問題很好。它帶給我們的好處遠多於它可能帶來的不利影響。

Bill Reuter, Bank of America.

美國銀行的比爾·路透。

Hi, good morning. Two hopefully quick ones. The first, the 70% to 75% of products assembled in the US, I was wondering if that was specific to Rent-A-Center or if that was across the industry. And I was kind of wondering whether you had talked to your customers on the Acima side and knew whether some of them were manufacturing more in China and may have indicated that they will be pushing through price increases.

嗨，早安。希望很快能得到兩個。首先，70% 到 75% 的產品在美國組裝，我想知道這是 Rent-A-Center 特有的現象還是整個產業都是如此。我想知道您是否與 Acima 方面的客戶進行過交談，是否知道他們中的一些人是否在中國增加了生產，並可能表示他們將推動價格上漲。

The number I was referring to was a Rent-A-Center number of what we buy versus knowing everything that our partners buy. But I can tell you talking to some of our bigger partners at the Acima side that there's not a lot of -- a lot of people have gotten out of China over the last few years anyhow. Vietnam has become the bigger place for getting furniture kits made or different furniture.

我所指的數字是 Rent-A-Center 對我們購買的產品的數字，而不是我們合作夥伴所購買的所有產品的數字。但我可以告訴你，在與 Acima 方面的一些較大合作夥伴交談時，過去幾年裡，離開中國的人並不多——反正有很多。越南已成為生產家具套件或不同家具的更大場所。

So I think Acima is going to be similar numbers without a lot of risk to tariffs, but the numbers I was quoting was Rent-A-Center maybe -- and we think it's modest at Acima as well. And we're not hearing anything yet from any of our larger partners about any big scare on tariffs.

因此，我認為 Acima 將會取得類似的數字，並且不會對關稅造成太大風險，但我引用的數字可能是 Rent-A-Center 的數字——我們認為 Acima 的數字也很適中。我們還沒有聽到任何較大的合作夥伴對關稅表示擔憂。

It's certainly not the furniture guys. We just met with one of our -- well, we met with two of our larger furniture partners in the last couple of weeks, and not a whole lot of concern on their end that prices are going to spike.

這肯定不是家具商。我們剛剛與我們的其中一位——嗯，我們在過去幾週與我們的兩家較大的家具合作夥伴進行了會面，他們並不太擔心價格會飆升。

All great to hear. And then, secondly, given the integration of Brigit, would you say that you're currently kind of in a period where you're not looking at much M&A as you kind of move towards that 2 times target? And that's all for me.

很高興聽到這些。其次，考慮到布里吉特的整合，您是否會說您目前正處於一個不太考慮併購的時期，而正朝著 2 倍的目標邁進？對我來說這就是全部了。

Sure, Bill. I think that's a fair way of looking at it. I think we've got a lot of room to go between integrating Brigit, cross-collaborating with Rent-A-Center and Acima, a lot of different initiatives that we have in-house, whether it's on the rentacenter.com and the digital channels and the consumer-driven approach at Acima. I think we have plenty in front of us to hit our growth targets and plus some. And then, with this level of uncertainty in the market, it definitely makes M&A even tougher. So I think that's a fair comment.

當然，比爾。我認為這是一種公平的看法。我認為我們在整合 Brigit、與 Rent-A-Center 和 Acima 進行交叉合作以及我們內部開展的許多不同舉措方面還有很大的發展空間，無論是在 rentacenter.com 還是數位管道以及 Acima 的消費者驅動方法上。我認為，我們還有很多工作要做，才能實現我們的成長目標，甚至更多。然後，由於市場存在這種程度的不確定性，併購肯定會變得更加困難。所以我認為這是一個公正的評論。

Great. Thanks again.

偉大的。再次感謝。

Thanks, Bill.

謝謝，比爾。

(Operator Instructions) Carla Casella, JPMorgan.

（操作員指示）摩根大通的卡拉卡塞拉 (Carla Casella)。

Hi, thanks for taking the question. I'm sorry if you answered this. I had to jump on a few minutes late. But my question is related to the early buyout, the trend in Q1 versus last year. And as we're kind of starting to near the end of the tax refund season, any color you can give us on what you're seeing?

你好，謝謝你回答這個問題。如果您回答了這個問題，我很抱歉。我只好晚幾分鐘才上車。但我的問題與早期收購有關，即第一季與去年相比的趨勢。現在我們即將進入退稅季的尾聲，您能告訴我們您看到的情況嗎？

Sure. So really both segments saw an uptick in buyout activity year over year. It was more pronounced on the Rent-A-Center side than the Acima side, at least compared to our expectations. But both of them when you look at activity year over year, tax season got off to a slow start, probably a week or so delayed. But by the end of March, we had caught up -- we got caught up. And I would say buyout activity was higher year over year, and you can see that in our gross margins at really both segments.

當然。因此，這兩個部門的收購活動實際上都比去年同期有所增加。至少與我們的預期相比，Rent-A-Center 方面的情況比 Acima 方面更為明顯。但當你觀察同比活動時，你會發現納稅季節的起步比較緩慢，可能延遲了一周左右。但到了三月底，我們就趕上了——我們趕上了。我想說的是，收購活動逐年增加，您可以從我們兩個部門的毛利率中看到這一點。

Okay. Great. And then, just any additional consumer trends either pre-tariff, or are you seeing any major differences between your stores and your partner stores in terms of just traffic?

好的。偉大的。然後，在關稅生效之前，是否有任何額外的消費者趨勢，或者您是否看到您的商店和合作商店在客流量方面有任何重大差異？

I haven't really noticed anything on the traffic side. I would characterize the state of the consumer as pretty stable. We haven't -- despite all the other kind of headlines and noise that we've gone through, I would say, it's been pretty stable over the last few quarters as far as their behavior, both on the demand side and on the payment side.

我並沒有真正注意到交通方面有什麼事情。我認為消費者的狀態相當穩定。我們沒有——儘管我們經歷了所有其他類型的頭條新聞和噪音，但我想說，就需求方和支付方的行為而言，過去幾個季度一直相當穩定。

And if you look at our numbers, delinquencies are stable, flat to down in both segments. Losses improved sequentially and year over year in both segments and still doing that with growing Acima at a double-digit clip.

如果你看一下我們的數據，你會發現兩個部分的拖欠率都很穩定，持平甚至下降。兩個部門的虧損均比上一季和去年同期有所改善，隨著 Acima 業務以兩位數的速度成長，這一趨勢仍在持續。

So again, mixed signals on the macro and the consumer. Tariff and inflation is potentially there, but you still have low unemployment and some wage growth kind of offsetting some of those things. So I would say, based on our underwriting, based on what we're seeing to date, I would say, the consumer is relatively stable.

因此，宏觀和消費者方面再次出現了混合訊號。關稅和通貨膨脹可能存在，但失業率仍然很低，而且薪資成長可以抵消其中的一些影響。因此我想說，根據我們的承保情況，根據我們迄今為止所看到的情況，我認為消費者相對穩定。

And for us, I mean, with the benefit of trade-down, we're going to continue to see great traffic, especially at Acima. And even from a Rent-A-Center standpoint, we haven't seen any change in consumer behavior. I mean, if we had not tightened underwriting and still were running mobile devices, we'd have had positive same-store sales again.

對我們來說，我的意思是，透過降價優惠，我們將繼續看到巨大的流量，特別是在 Acima。即使從 Rent-A-Center 的角度來看，我們也沒有看到消費者行為有任何變化。我的意思是，如果我們沒有收緊承保並且仍然經營行動設備，我們的同店銷售額就會再次呈現正成長。

But we just thought it's more prudent to get rid of some of those high loss items. So no change in consumer behavior at all that we're seeing. If anything, it's positive from a trade-down standpoint.

但我們只是認為，處理掉一些高損耗物品是更謹慎的做法。因此，我們看到消費者行為根本沒有改變。無論如何，從降價交易的角度來看，這是積極的。

Okay. That's great. And if I could just have one follow-up from Bill's question, maybe it sounds like you've got a lot of internal opportunities, collaboration for growth. Any new wins or losses we should be watching for potential for '25, '26 on the Acima side in terms of customer wins or losses?

好的。那太棒了。如果我可以就比爾的問題做一個後續回答，聽起來你們似乎有很多內部機會和合作來促進成長。就客戶贏利或損失而言，我們應該關注 25、26 年 Acima 方面是否有任何新的贏利或損失潛力？

Yeah. I think based on what -- the momentum that we saw throughout the quarter and into the second quarter results, I think that speaks for us taking more share as the year goes on. So I think nice regional wins. We had a couple last quarter and expect a few more this year.

是的。我認為，基於我們在整個季度和第二季度業績中看到的勢頭，這說明隨著時間的推移，我們將佔據更多的份額。所以我認為這是一次不錯的地區勝利。上個季度我們有幾個，預計今年還會有更多。

So no, I think the pipeline is still very strong. We still have a few of the enterprise accounts that we're talking to and still in RFPs. So nothing to announce formally today. But yeah, you can see it in our GMV numbers and the trends that we highlighted that we are still taking share.

所以不，我認為管道仍然非常強大。我們仍在與一些企業客戶洽談，並且仍在徵求建議書 (RFP) 中。因此今天沒有什麼正式消息可以宣布。但是，是的，您可以從我們的 GMV 數字和我們強調的趨勢中看到，我們仍在佔據市場份額。

Yes. The regional wins have been strong, and nothing to announce on the real big enterprise accounts. But continue to win regionally, obviously, with the low-double-digit growth.

是的。地區性勝利十分強勁，但在真正的大型企業帳戶上卻沒有什麼可宣布的。但顯然，憑藉低兩位數的成長，該公司將繼續在地區範圍內獲勝。

Great. Thank you.

偉大的。謝謝。

Kyle Joseph, Stephens.

凱爾·約瑟夫，史蒂芬斯。

Hey, good morning, guys. Most have been answered. But just want to get your thoughts on underwriting. I know you addressed, on the Rent-A-Center side, some tightening last year or maybe end of '23 that seems to be having its desired effects. I know on Acima, I think you guys tightened all the way back to, was it '22? But just give us a sense for where you are on underwriting, given kind of some of the macro changes we've seen.

嘿，大家早安。大多數都已得到答案。但只是想了解一下您對承保的看法。我知道您談到了 Rent-A-Center 方面的一些緊縮措施，這些措施在去年或 2023 年底似乎達到了預期效果。我知道在 Acima 上，我認為你們一直收緊到 22 年嗎？但是，考慮到我們所看到的一些宏觀變化，請讓我們了解一下您在承保方面的狀況。

Yeah, Kyle, to your point, I think we've been on the conservative side of underwriting, and our posture has been relatively conservative now for a couple of years, which actually gives us even more confidence in the guide going forward because we look at our portfolio and compare it to this time last year and even further back and feel really good about the metrics that we're seeing in the current portfolio because of our underwriting tightening that we're doing.

是的，凱爾，正如你所說，我認為我們在承保方面一直持保守態度，而且我們的立場在過去幾年中一直相對保守，這實際上讓我們對未來的指南更有信心，因為我們查看了我們的投資組合，並將其與去年這個時候甚至更早的時候進行比較，由於我們正在收緊承保，我們對當前投資組合中看到的指標感到非常滿意。

So, as we mentioned, we're continuously looking at it and finding both areas of opportunities and areas of potential risk and continuing to tweak it, and I would say, still being very conservative in our approach. We have a little bit more flexibility on the Acima side to be more conservative because of the trade down. As we mentioned, applications are up 10% at Acima. The approval rate overall is flat.

因此，正如我們所提到的，我們一直在關注它，尋找機會領域和潛在風險領域，並不斷對其進行調整，我想說，我們的方法仍然非常保守。由於交易減少，我們在 Acima 方面擁有更多的靈活性，可以採取更保守的態度。正如我們所提到的，Acima 的申請人數增加了 10%。總體而言，批准率持平。

But if you break it down, we're tighter on the higher risk segments and probably slightly up on like furniture and appliances. So we are finding our spots where we can be aggressive, and we're finding other spots where we can be conservative.

但如果你把它分解開來，我們會更嚴格地控制高風險領域，並且可能會稍微提高對家具和家電的監管。因此，我們正在尋找可以採取積極行動的地點，也正在尋找可以採取保守行動的地點。

So we feel like we're pretty well balanced but taking a conservative approach in underwriting, given the uncertainty in the market. But we think we can hit our low-double-digit growth at Acima and continue to bring our losses down and improve margins. If you think about our margins for the first quarter, year over year, they're up 170 basis points.

因此，考慮到市場的不確定性，我們感覺我們已經相當平衡，但在核保方面採取了保守的態度。但我們認為，Acima 可以實現低兩位數的成長，並持續降低虧損並提高利潤率。如果你看我們第一季的利潤率，你會發現與去年同期相比，利潤率上漲了 170 個基點。

We expect that trend to continue really for the rest of the year, if not expand, as the portfolio continues to grow. So look, if things get a little bit better, we can always relook at underwriting. But for now, we're going to keep it on the conservative side.

我們預計，隨著投資組合的不斷增長，這一趨勢將在今年剩餘時間內持續下去，甚至擴大。所以，如果情況稍微好轉，我們就可以重新考慮承保。但目前，我們仍將保持保守態度。

Yes. When you think about that low-double-digit growth on top of last year's growth, would you say the first quarter two-year stack was, in your prepared comments, 29% -- two years -- and lowering losses with 29% two-year growth is -- that's some impressive work by the team. That's all I'll say.

是的。當您考慮到在去年的成長基礎上又實現了低兩位數的成長時，您是否會說第一季兩年的疊加成長率是 29%（兩年），而透過 29% 的兩年成長率來降低損失，這是團隊做出的令人印象深刻的工作。我要說的就這些。

And then, on the Rent-A-Center side, lowering losses and only sliding 2% on same-store sales in this environment, and we'd expect the second quarter to be similar. By the latter half of the year, we'd expect that to improve, the minus 2%. So that's some impressive stuff when you combine it.

然後，就 Rent-A-Center 方面而言，在這種環境下，虧損減少，同店銷售額僅下滑 2%，我們預計第二季的情況也會類似。到今年下半年，我們預計這一數字將會有所改善，即下降 2%。所以當你把它們結合起來時，就會產生一些令人印象深刻的東西。

And I think trade-down is one of the reasons we can do it, and the resiliency of our business model. We can do it because we're getting more of the -- what you might call the topside customers coming into the category, especially at Acima. So very positive stuff there, Kyle.

我認為降價是我們能夠做到這一點的原因之一，也是我們商業模式的彈性所在。我們之所以能做到這一點，是因為我們獲得了更多——你可以稱之為頂級客戶——進入這一類別，尤其是在 Acima。凱爾，那裡的情況非常積極。

Got it. Thanks for fitting me in, Mitch. Enjoy your retirement and finally look forward to working together still.

知道了。謝謝你幫我安排，米奇。享受退休生活並期待繼續一起工作。

Thanks, Kyle. I appreciate it.

謝謝，凱爾。我很感激。

I will now turn the call back over to Mitch Fadel, Upbound CEO, for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

現在，我將把電話轉回給 Upbound 執行長 Mitch Fadel，請他作最後發言。請繼續。

Thank you, operator, and thank you to everyone who joined us today for our first quarter update and our outlook for the balance of 2025. And I want to thank everybody for everything over the years. And as I sign off, I'd like to thank all of you and all my colleagues and friends who have helped -- really helped build Upbound into the leader that it is today.

謝謝接線員，也感謝今天加入我們第一季更新和 2025 年平衡展望的所有人。我要感謝大家多年來所做的一切。最後，我要感謝你們所有人以及我的同事和朋友，是你們幫助 Upbound 成為了今天的領導者。

I think we're -- this is a real high note. I knew the company was in great shape when I announced my retirement. It's only gotten better since then. And I know Fahmi and the team. I wish them the best of luck. I know they're going to take it to even a higher level than I was able to do.

我認為我們——這是一個真正的高調。當我宣布退休時，我知道公司狀況很好。從那以後，情況就越來越好了。我認識法赫米和他的團隊。我祝他們好運。我知道他們將會把它提升到比我所能達到的更高的水平。

So I sure appreciate everybody. And I know I'm going to miss everybody, but I'll be watching from the sidelines. Thank you, everybody.

所以我真的很感謝大家。我知道我會想念大家，但我會在場邊觀看。謝謝大家。

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝大家的加入。您現在可以斷開連線。