Aaron's Acquires its Largest Franchisee

ATLANTA, July 28, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Aaron's, Inc. (NYSE: AAN), a leading omnichannel provider of lease-purchase solutions, today announced that it has acquired substantially all of the assets of its largest franchisee, SEI/Aaron's, Inc., in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $140 million, which was paid with cash-on-hand. Aaron's expects the transaction to be accretive to earnings in 2017.

SEI was founded in 1995 and currently serves more than 90,000 customers through 104 Aaron's stores in 11 states, primarily in the Northeast.

"We're excited to bring the SEI team and stores into the Aaron's organization," said John Robinson, Chief Executive Officer. "Founder Charles Smithgall, CEO Chas Smithgall and SEI's President and COO, Dave Edwards, have built an outstanding business over the last 22 years, with a deep leadership team and strong profitability," concluded Mr. Robinson.

"The acquisition will strengthen Aaron's presence in highly attractive markets," said Douglas Lindsay, President of the Aaron's Business. "I am especially pleased that Dave Edwards, who has led SEI's operations for over 15 years, will be joining the Aaron's team. SEI has consistently been one of our top performing franchisees. Our omnichannel platform should benefit from added scale, and we believe there are opportunities for revenue and cost improvement as we leverage our existing competitive advantages and apply SEI's best-in-class operating strategies." 

"In addition, we expect the purchase will enhance our ability to drive inventory supply-chain synergies between the Aaron's Business and Progressive Leasing in markets that SEI currently serves," concluded Mr. Lindsay.

"We have been a proud and successful part of the Aaron's family for over 20 years," said Dave Edwards, President and Chief Operating Officer of SEI. "Aaron's has an exceptional culture and long history of providing customers access to quality products for their homes and families. We're confident the legacy we have built together will continue as the organization executes on its long-term strategy."  

About Aaron's, Inc.
Headquartered in Atlanta, Aaron's, Inc. (NYSE: AAN), is a leading omnichannel provider of lease-purchase solutions. The Aaron's Business engages in the sales and lease ownership and specialty retailing of furniture, consumer electronics, home appliances and accessories through its more than 1,770 Company-operated and franchised stores in 47 states and Canada, as well as its e-commerce platform, Aarons.com. In addition, Progressive Leasing, a virtual lease-to-own company, provides lease-purchase solutions through approximately 24,000 retail locations in 46 states. Dent-A-Med, Inc., d/b/a the HELPcard®, provides a variety of second-look credit products that are originated through federally insured banks. For more information, visit investor.aarons.com, Aarons.com, ProgLeasing.com, and HELPcard.com.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this news release regarding our business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, such as "may," "expect," "expectations," "outlook," "forecast," "guidance," "intend," "believe," "could," "project," "estimate," "anticipate," "should" and similar terminology. These risks and uncertainties include factors such as risks associated with our acquisition of SEI's store operations, including risks that the SEI business does not achieve the financial performance we expect or that we do not achieve our integration plans and objectives related to the SEI business; changes in general economic conditions; competition; pricing; legal and regulatory proceedings; customer privacy; information security; customer demand; the execution and results of our strategy and expense reduction and store closure and consolidation initiatives; risks related to Progressive Leasing's "virtual" lease-to-own business,  and the other risks and uncertainties discussed under "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016 as updated in its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2017. Statements in this release that are "forward-looking" include without limitation statements regarding: the expected financial and operational performance of the SEI store operations we have acquired; the revenue enhancement and cost-reduction opportunities that may be created by that  acquisition ; the benefits expected from, and importance to our business of, the geographical markets in which the SEI business operates;  the benefits expected for our omnichannel platform from the  scale we expect from the SEI acquisition; enhancements to our ability to drive inventory supply-chain synergies and improvements between the Aaron's Business and Progressive Leasing within the markets in which  the SEI stores operate; long-term growth; and the outcome and results of our strategic investments and objectives, including the outcome of our acquisition of the SEI store operations You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances after the date of this press release.

SOURCE Aaron's, Inc.

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