Enova International, Inc. (NYSE:ENVA) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Vincent Caintic: First question also on small business. So we have these kind of big turmoil over the past, that’s mid-March. And since then, we’ve heard of banks starting to tighten up on certain types of lending categories, and small business seems to be one of them. I’m sort of just wondering if you’re hearing or seeing anything and how the competitive landscape is looking for you, and perhaps there might be some opportunities as others pull back from small business lending.

David Fisher: Yes. No. Great question. Look, in general, our small business products are structured to attract businesses that generally can’t qualify for traditional loans from banks. So there’s not a direct overlap. But over time, as those things continue to pull back, obviously, those customers that maybe — those small businesses that maybe historically would have been able to get a bank loan no longer will be able to. And as they search out cash, we do think we are a viable option for them. So we haven’t seen a ton of that yet. We didn’t see a spike of volume in March, but that’s not unexpected. I mean those businesses that have traditionally borrowed from banks, it could take them some time to adjust to having a borrow from a different type of lender. But the banking pullback does seem to be continuing. So I think as we look forward into Q2 into the summer, that pullback continues certainly an opportunity for our small business products.

Vincent Caintic: Okay. Great. And second question just kind of pivoting over kind of related to — on the financing side, Steve, if you could talk about kind of your funding availability as well as how you’re thinking about the capital structure. It’s nice to see taking advantage of — and using some share repurchases, but how you’re thinking about your funding availability, access to the funding markets and then the capital structure.

Steven Cunningham: Yes. Sure. So I think our approach to financing hasn’t really changed dramatically over time with our approach to securitization and a combination of facilities and term in the securitization markets as well as where we need term financing using it. So we’re going to continue to be opportunistic, just like we have been over the past several years as we’ve been dealing with a range of operating environments. I would say if anything, after some of the banking noise calmed down earlier in March, we’ve seen opportunities in the financing markets continue to improve. So to the extent that we need to raise new money to fund growth, I feel like we’ll continue to have access at economical levels that will allow us to continue to fund growth, but also to do some of the things we talked about, which is continuing our share repurchase program where it makes sense and continuing to retire the upcoming 2024 senior notes over the next year plus.

Operator: The next question comes from John Rowan of Janney.

John Rowan: I guess I’m struggling to understand conceptually where you stand in the process of evaluating kind of strategic alternatives, if you will. Are you still in the idea generation phase? Or are you starting to like look through actual proposals and eliminate potential options? I’m just trying to conceptually understand where we sit in kind of the process of unlocking shareholder value.

David Fisher: Yes. I mean I think we’re kind of still doing both of those. I would say we’re in the earliest side. And again, this isn’t like the outcome is, hey, we’re going to go sell the company, where are we in the process of selling the company. This could take many, many different forms from M&A transactions as buyers and sellers kind of balance sheet restructurings, repositioning the business in different ways. So it takes lots of different forms. And because of that, we’re talking to different kinds of advisers to figure it out. So we’ve heard some ideas that are interesting. We’ve heard some ideas that are not, and we’ll continue to evaluate. And as I mentioned earlier, this may be a process that has a definitive outcome like we’re going to do x, but it might be something where we’re going to do a whole series of things. So over the next couple of years, we’re able to extract value better than we’ve been able to over the last couple of years.

John Rowan: Okay. And then just lastly, obviously, you’re buying debt — I think you said it was at a slight discount to par. Any implications from credit rating agencies or that such of buying back below par?

Steven Cunningham: John, no, we’re not buying it at levels that would raise the concerns that you would typically see that they would raise from buying back debt. It’s just a touch below par. But still, the bonds are callable at par, so it’s still an opportunistic buy for us. And we’ve been in dialogue with the agencies about our plan. This particular bond is pretty small in the scheme of things for Enova, and our liquidity position is very strong. So we’re not in a situation where this is creating distress for us in any way. So I think we’re in good shape to continue to take this on over the next year or so.

John Rowan: Okay. Well, I was more talking about, obviously, when — if you buy back bonds at a significant discount to par, some of the rating agencies will consider it a technical default. I just want to make sure that we’re not — I don’t think we’re in that zone, but I just wanted to make sure.

Steven Cunningham: Yes. No, these are around — about 99. So we’re not talking about any of that — any at this level.

Operator: This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to David Fisher for any closing remarks.

David Fisher: Thank you, operator. Thank you, everyone, for joining our call today. We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Have a great evening.

Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation, and you may now disconnect.

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