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Cash America Completes Sale of European Businesses and Announces Agreement to Buy Largest U.S. Based Independent Pawn Lending Business.

Article Excerpt
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Cash America International, Inc. (NYSE:PWN) announced today that it has sold its two European subsidiaries in a single transaction and in a separate transaction signed an agreement for the purchase of a 41-store chain of pawn locations based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The sale of the two European pawn-lending businesses, Harvey and Thompson based in London, England, and Svensk Pantbelaning based in Stockholm, Sweden, was completed on September 7, 2004. On the same day, Cash America entered into an agreement to purchase the pawn operating assets of Camco, Inc., which does business under the trade name SuperPawn in four western states.

Commenting on the transactions, Chief Executive Officer and President of Cash America, Daniel R. Feehan said, "The combination of sale and purchase transactions allows Cash America to focus exclusively on our growth opportunities in the United States. We have enjoyed a great deal of success in our European businesses, growing revenue and earnings significantly while expanding the store base from 24 units in 1992 to today's level of 69 lending locations. However, we now believe the growth opportunities for both our pawn and short-term cash advance businesses are more plentiful and potentially more rewarding in the U.S. than any opportunities we find in Europe. The sale of our European businesses will allow us to redeploy resources from Europe into opportunities closer...

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