NOTE 5: STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS

Cash Converters International Limited

At March 31, 2014, we owned 136,848,000 shares, or approximately 32%, of Cash Converters International Limited, a publicly traded company headquartered in Perth, Australia. Cash Converters International franchises and operates a worldwide network of over 700 specialty financial services and retail stores that provide pawn loans, short-term unsecured loans and other consumer finance products, and buy and sell second-hand goods, with significant store concentrations in Australia and the United Kingdom. Those shares include 12,430,000 shares that we acquired in November 2012 for approximately $11.0 million in cash as part of a share placement. Our total investment in Cash Converters International was acquired between November 2009 and November 2012 for approximately $68.8 million.

We account for our investment in Cash Converters International using the equity method. Since Cash Converters International’s fiscal year ends three months prior to ours, we report the income from this investment on a three-month lag. Cash Converters International files semi-annual financial reports for its fiscal periods ending December 31 and June 30. Due to the three-month lag, income reported for our six-month periods ended March 31, 2014 and 2013 represents our percentage interest in the results of Cash Converters International’s operations from July 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013 and July 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012, respectively.

Conversion of Cash Converters International’s financial statements into U.S. GAAP resulted in no material differences from those reported by Cash Converters following IFRS.

In its functional currency of Australian dollars, Cash Converters International’s total assets increased 32% from December 31, 2012 to December 31, 2013 and its net income attributable to the owners of the parent decreased 46% for the six months ended December 31, 2013. This decrease is primarily due to a decline in short-term personal lending as a result of regulatory changes in Australia. Cash Converters International sees these regulatory changes as an opportunity to capitalize on their strong compliance culture and critical mass in terms of stores and financing capability. For the month of December 2013, loan volumes returned to record levels as the customers are becoming more familiar with the documentation required to meet the new regulatory requirements.

The following table presents summary financial information for Cash Converters International’s most recently reported results after translation to U.S. dollars (using the exchange rate as of December 31 of each year for balance sheet items and average exchange rates for the income statement items for the periods indicated):



	As of December 31,
	2013			2012
	(in thousands)
Current assets	$	202,735		$	169,739
Non-current assets	148,010			141,258
Total assets	$	350,745		$	310,997
Current liabilities	$	77,263		$	38,735
Non-current liabilities	52,522			31,591
Shareholders’ equity:
Equity attributable to owners of the parent	224,026			240,671
Non-controlling interest	(3,065		)	—
Total liabilities and shareholders’ equity	$	350,746		$	310,997



	Six Months Ended December 31,
	2013			2012
	(in thousands)
Gross revenues	$	143,517		$	140,123
Gross profit	91,605			95,149
Profit for the period attributable to:
Owners of the parent	$	9,103		$	19,143
Noncontrolling interest	(2,417		)	—

Albemarle & Bond Holdings, PLC

At March 31, 2014, we owned 16,644,640 ordinary shares of Albemarle & Bond, representing approximately 30% of its total outstanding shares. Our total cost for those shares was approximately $27.6 million. Albemarle & Bond is primarily engaged in pawnbroking, retail jewelry sales, check cashing and lending in the United Kingdom. We account for the investment using the equity method.

Since Albemarle & Bond’s fiscal year ends three months prior to ours, we report the income from this investment on a three-month lag. Albemarle & Bond files semi-annual financial reports for its fiscal periods ending December 31 and June 30. Due to the three-month lag, income reported for our six-month periods ended March 31, 2014 and 2013 represents our percentage interest in the results of Albemarle & Bond’s operations from July 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013 and July 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012, respectively.

On April 19, 2013, Albemarle & Bond announced that it expected profits for their full fiscal year (ending June 30, 2013) to be materially below market expectations, citing reduction in gold buying profit and pressures on its pawn loan business due to the challenging gold environment and increased competition. In addition Albemarle & Bond's Board of Directors announced that their CEO would step down earlier than planned. In early October 2013, Albemarle & Bond announced that discussions to underwrite an equity funding had failed and they were in ongoing discussions with their banks to negotiate covenants. The market price of Albemarle & Bond’s stock declined as a result of this information. Due to these events, we evaluated the economic and strategic benefits of continuing to hold this investment. Based on the review as of October 18, 2013, we determined that the fair value of this investment was less than its carrying value as of September 30, 2013 and that this impairment was other than temporary. As a result, we recognized an other than temporary impairment of $42.5 million ($28.7 million, net of taxes), which brought our carrying value of this investment to $9.4 million at the end of the year ended September 30, 2013.

As of March 31, 2014, we concluded that this investment was impaired, and that such impairment was other than temporary. In reaching this conclusion, we considered all available evidence, including that (i) Albemarle & Bond had not achieved forecasted revenue or operating results, (ii) Albemarle & Bond had been negatively impacted by the falling price of gold on the international markets, a drop of more than 20% this year, (iii) Albemarle & Bond commenced a formal sale process of the company on December 5, 2013 and then terminated the process on January 27, 2014 after deciding that none of the proposals deemed to represent a fair value for the company, and (iv) a prolonged drop in Albemarle & Bond's stock price as a result of the above aforementioned factors. The active trading of Albemarle & Bond was suspended on March 24, 2014. Despite the final sale of Albemarle & Bond in April 2014 we believe limited value, if any, is attributable to our investment. As a result, we recognized an other than temporary impairment of $7.9 million ($5.4 million, net of taxes) during the quarter ended March 31, 2014, which brought our carrying value of this investment to zero.

Conversion of Albemarle & Bond’s financial statements into U.S. GAAP resulted in no material differences from those reported by Albemarle & Bond following IFRS.

The table below summarizes the recorded value and fair value of each of these strategic investments at the dates indicated. The fair values of Albemarle & Bond as of March 31, 2013 and Cash Converters International as of March 31, 2014 and 2013 as well as September 30, 2013 are considered Level 1 estimates within the fair value hierarchy of FASB ASC 820-10-50, and were calculated as (a) the quoted stock price on each company’s principal market multiplied by (b) the number of shares we owned multiplied by (c) the applicable foreign currency exchange rate at the dates indicated. We included no control premium by owning a large percentage of outstanding shares.

The fair value for Albemarle & Bond at March 31, 2014 is considered a Level 2 estimate within the fair value hierarchy of FASB ASC 820-10-50. We calculated the fair value based on (a) the last known stock price after all active trading was suspended on March 21, 2014 and (b) Albemarle & Bond's announcement of limited, if any, value available to the ordinary shares of its stock, which was considered to be an unobservable input insignificant to the overall determination of the Albemarle & Bond fair value. The fair value for Albemarle & Bond at September 30, 2013 is considered a Level 2 estimate within the fair value hierarchy of FASB ASC 820-10-50. We calculated the fair value based on (a) the quoted average stock price of Albemarle & Bond over the two week period subsequent to the October announcement multiplied by (b) the number of shares we owned multiplied by (c) the applicable foreign currency exchange rate as of the dates indicated during the post September 30, 2013 measurement date. We believe this measurement date allowed the market to react and adjust to the information released by Albemarle & Bond the first week of October 2013, as previously mentioned, and therefore resulted in a reasonable fair value as of September 30, 2013.



	March 31,				September 30,
	2014		2013		2013
	(in thousands of U.S. dollars)
Albemarle & Bond:
Recorded value	$	—	$	53,053	$	9,439
Fair value	—		54,103		9,439
Cash Converters International:
Recorded value	$	88,685	$	94,179	$	87,645
Fair value	121,478		208,110		165,663