Nicholas Financial Inc (NICK) SEC Filing 10-K Annual report for the fiscal year ending Saturday, March 31, 2018

Exhibit 99.1

		Contact: Chad Steinorth                 Vice President, Interim CFO		FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   NASDAQ: NICK  Web site: www.nicholasfinancial.com
Nicholas Financial, Inc.		Ph # - 727-726-0763
Corporate Headquarters
2454 McMullen-Booth Rd.
Building C, Suite 501
Clearwater, FL 33759

Nicholas Financial Reports

4^th Quarter Results and Full Year Results

June 6, 2018 – Clearwater, Florida - Nicholas Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ: NICK) announced that for the three months ended March 31, 2018, diluted net earnings (loss) per share improved to $0.08 as compared to $(0.14) for the three months ended March 31, 2017. Net earnings (loss) were $644 thousand and $(1.1) million for the three months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively. Revenue decreased 13% to $19.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2018 from $22.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017. The Company’s effective tax rate was a benefit of (36%) for the three months ended March 31, 2018 as compared to a benefit of (37%) for the three months ended March 31, 2017.

For the twelve months ended March 31, 2018, per share diluted net (loss) was $(0.14) as compared to earnings of $0.69 for the twelve months ended March 31, 2017. Net (loss) earnings were $(1.1) million and $5.4 million for the twelve months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively. Revenue decreased 7% to $83.9 million for the twelve months ended March 31, 2018 as compared to $90.5 million for the twelve months ended March 31, 2017. The Company’s effective tax rate increased to 135% for the twelve months ended March 31, 2018 from 38% for the twelve months ended March 31, 2017.

Several factors led to the financial performance deterioration in 2018 compared to 2017. Finance Receivables, net of unearned interest, discount and allowance for credit losses decreased 15% to $270 million as of March 31, 2018 from $317 million as of March 31, 2017. Provision for credit losses increased to $37.5 million for the twelve months ended March 31, 2018 compared to $37.2 for the twelve months ended March 31, 2017. On December 22, 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was passed into law (“TCJA”). The resulting decrease in the corporate tax rate impaired our deferred tax asset and caused our income tax expense to increase by $3.4 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2017. The provisional amounts used for the quarter ended December 31, 2017 were revised to year-end actual deferred asset balances and resulted in a reduction (income tax benefit for the quarter ended March 31, 2018) to the amount recorded in December 2017. The net effect adversely affected our net (loss) earnings for fiscal 2018. This was partially offset by a favorable decrease in overall delinquency to 8.07% as of March 31, 2018 from 10.05% as of March 31, 2017.

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