Rent-A-Center, Inc. Completes Redemption of All of Its Outstanding 11% Senior Subordinated Notes Due 2008

August 15, 2003 at 4:55 PM EDT

PLANO, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 15, 2003--Rent-A-Center, Inc. (the "Company") (Nasdaq/NNM:RCII) announced today that it has completed its previously announced optional redemption of all of the outstanding 11% Senior Subordinated Notes due 2008, Series D (CUSIP No. 76009N AC 4) issued by its subsidiary, Rent-A-Center East (the "11% Notes"), in accordance with the terms of the indenture governing the 11% Notes, at the applicable redemption price of 105.5% of the principal amount thereof, plus accrued and unpaid interest to that date. The total aggregate redemption price for the 11% Notes was approximately $93.75 million, including $4.65 million in accrued interest and $4.65 million in redemption premium. Proceeds from the Company's recent offering of $300 million in 7.5% Senior Subordinated Notes due 2010 were used to pay for the redemption.

The Company also announced that it has repurchased an additional 216,500 shares of its common stock in open market transactions during the month of August. These latest repurchase transactions were made pursuant to the Company's stock repurchase program. Approximately $8.5 million is currently available under the stock repurchase program for additional open market and privately negotiated repurchases of common stock.

"The completion of the redemption of our 11% Notes and the additional repurchases of our common stock further our goal of refinancing our debt and equity structure," commented Robert D. Davis, the Company's Chief Financial Officer. "These repurchases complete our objectives when we announced our tender offer for all our 11% notes and our tender offer for 2.2 million shares of our common stock early in the year," Davis continued, "however, to the extent we have available cash on hand that is not needed for store openings, acquisitions or other corporate purposes, we will continue to explore opportunities to repurchase our common stock pursuant to our stock repurchase program as well as make payments to service our existing debt."

Rent-A-Center, Inc., headquartered in Plano, Texas currently operates 2,582 company-owned stores nationwide and in Puerto Rico. The stores generally offer high-quality, durable goods such as home electronics, appliances, computers, and furniture and accessories to consumers under flexible rental purchase agreements that generally allow the customer to obtain ownership of the merchandise at the conclusion of an agreed-upon rental period. ColorTyme, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, is a national franchisor of 318 rent-to-own stores, 306 of which operate under the trade name of "ColorTyme," and the remaining 12 of which operate under the "Rent-A-Center" name.

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "intend," "could," "estimate," "should," "anticipate," or "believe," or the negative thereof or variations thereon or similar terminology. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements will prove to be correct, the Company can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. The actual future performance of the Company could differ materially from such statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: changes in interest rates, changes in the Company's stock price that could result in the Company not repurchasing any additional shares of common stock; and the other risks detailed from time to time in Rent-A-Center, Inc.'s SEC filings, including but not limited to, its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2002, its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended on March 31, 2003 and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2003. 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 is not obligated to publicly release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect the events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

CONTACT: Rent-A-Center, Inc., Plano
David E. Carpenter, 972-801-1214
dcarpenter@racenter.com
or
Robert D. Davis, 972-801-1204
rdavis@racenter.com

SOURCE: Rent-A-Center, Inc.