Rent-A-Center, Inc. Reports First Quarter 2006 Results; Reported Diluted Earnings per Share of $0.57; Same Store Sales Increase 1.8%; Cash Flow from Operations Exceeds $61.1 Million

Business Wire, April 24, 2006

SECOND QUARTER 2006 GUIDANCE:

Revenues

--The Company expects total revenues to be in the range of $578 million to $586 million.

--Store rental and fee revenues are expected to be between $523 million and $529 million.

--Total store revenues are expected to be in the range of $569 million to $577 million.

--Same store sales are expected to be in the flat to 1.0% range.

--The Company expects to open 5-15 new rent-to-own store locations.

--The Company expects to add financial services to 30-40 rent-to-own store locations.

Expenses

--The Company expects cost of rental and fees to be between 21.5% and 21.9% of store rental and fee revenue and cost of goods merchandise sales to be between 73% and 78% of store merchandise sales.

--Store salaries and other expenses are expected to be in the range of 58.0% to 59.5% of total store revenue.

--General and administrative expenses are expected to be between 3.6% and 3.8% of total revenue.

--Net interest expense is expected to be approximately $12.0 million, depreciation of property assets to be approximately $13.5 million and amortization of intangibles is expected to be approximately $1.0 million.

--The effective tax rate is expected to be approximately 37.0% of pre-tax income.

--Diluted earnings per share are estimated to be in the range of $0.50 to $0.54.

--Diluted shares outstanding are estimated to be between 70.1 million and 71.1 million.

FISCAL 2006 GUIDANCE:

Revenues

--The Company expects total revenues to be in the range of $2.338 billion and $2.368 billion.

--Store rental and fee revenues are expected to be between $2.085 billion and $2.110 billion.

--Total store revenues are expected to be in the range of $2.302 billion and $2.332 billion.

--Same store sales are expected to be approximately 1%.

--The Company expects to open 60-80 new store locations.

--The Company expects to add financial services to 100-160 rent-to-own store locations.

Expenses

--The Company expects cost of rental and fees to be between 21.5% and 21.9% of store rental and fee revenue and cost of goods merchandise sales to be between 70% and 75% of store merchandise sales.

--Store salaries and other expenses are expected to be in the range of 58.0% to 59.5% of total store revenue.

--General and administrative expenses are expected to be between 3.6% and 3.8% of total revenue.

--Net interest expense is expected to be between $44.0 million and $49.0 million, depreciation of property assets is expected to be between $52.0 million and $57.0 million and amortization of intangibles is expected to be approximately $3.5 million.

--The effective tax rate is expected to be approximately 37.0% of pre-tax income.

--Diluted earnings per share are estimated to be in the range of $2.00 to $2.10.

--Diluted shares outstanding are estimated to be between 70.0 million and 71.5 million.

This press release and the guidance above contain 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: uncertainties regarding the Company's ability to open new rent-to-own stores; the Company's ability to acquire additional rent-to-own stores on favorable terms; the Company's ability to enhance the performance of these acquired stores; the Company's ability to control store level costs; the Company's ability to identify and successfully market products and services that appeal to the Company's customer demographic; the Company's ability to identify and successfully enter into new lines of business offering products and services that appeal to the Company's customer demographic, including the Company's financial services products; the results of the Company's litigation; the passage of legislation adversely affecting the rent-to-own or financial services industries; interest rates; the Company's ability to enter into new and collect on the Company's rental purchase agreements; the Company's ability to enter into new and collect on the Company's short term loans; economic pressures affecting the disposable income available to the Company's targeted consumers, such as high fuel and utility costs; changes in the Company's effective tax rate; the Company's ability to maintain an effective system of internal controls; changes in the number of share-based compensation grants, methods used to value future share-based payments and changes in estimated forfeiture rates with respect to share-based compensation; changes in the Company's stock price and the number of shares of common stock that we may or may not repurchase; and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's SEC reports, including but not limited to, the Company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2005. 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.