ATLANTA, Aug. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Aaron Rents, Inc. (NYSE: RNT),
the nation's leader in the rental, sales and lease ownership, and specialty
retailing of residential and office furniture, consumer electronics and home
appliances and accessories, today announced it has acquired 25 rental purchase
stores in a cash transaction from Home Express, Inc., based in Spartanburg,
South Carolina.
Home Express operated 21 stores in South Carolina and four stores in North
Carolina. Immediately subsequent to the acquisition, the Company will sell
five of the stores to its franchisees in the same markets as Home Express.
Fourteen of the Home Express stores will be converted to Company-operated
Aaron's Sales & Lease Ownership stores and six of the stores will be merged
with other Company-operated stores. Four stores will be merged into existing
Aaron's Sales & Lease Ownership franchised stores and one store will be
converted to a franchised store. The current annual revenue of all the Home
Express stores is approximately $12 million.
"We are excited about this acquisition as it increases our presence in the
Carolinas, an important and growing market for us," said R. Charles
Loudermilk, Sr. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Aaron Rents. "This
acquisition is not expected to be accretive to earnings in 2004 but should add
to profitability in 2005."
"We continue to be very positive about our business and our earnings
guidance for the third quarter of 2004 remains unchanged at expecting diluted
earnings per share in the range of $.21 to $.23 per share," Mr. Loudermilk
continued. "We also expect for the full year 2004 diluted earnings per share
to be in the range of $1.00 to $1.03, which includes a $.07 per diluted share
gain on the disposition of our Rainbow Rentals stock in May of this year,
compared to the $.73 diluted per share recorded in 2003."
The above per share data has been adjusted for the Company's August 2004
3-for-2 stock split.
Aaron Rents, Inc., based in Atlanta, currently has over 970 Company-
operated and franchised stores in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada
for the rental and sale of residential and office furniture, accessories,
consumer electronics and household appliances. The Company also manufactures
furniture, bedding and accessories at 10 facilities in four states.
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995: Statements in this news release regarding Aaron Rents, Inc.'s
business which 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. These
risks and uncertainties include factors such as changes in general economic
conditions, competition, pricing, customer demand and other issues, and the
risks and uncertainties discussed under "Certain Factors Affecting Forward
Looking Statements" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for fiscal
2003, which discussion is incorporated herein by this reference. Statements
in this release that are "forward-looking" include without limitation Aaron
Rents' projected earnings for 2004.
CONTACT:
Gilbert L. Danielson
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Aaron Rents, Inc.
404-231-0011, ext. 3334
Web site: http://www.aaronrents.com