While the company has encountered some retail sales challenges, America’s Car-Mart found some positives to tout this week.

The buy-here, pay-here dealership chain highlighted that it has completed a term securitization transaction involving the issuance of $200 million in principal amount of asset-backed notes with an overall weighted average coupon of 6.49%.

Car-Mart said the ACM Auto Trust 2025-1 included $150.77 million of Class A Notes and $49.23 million of Class B Notes. The Class A Notes had a coupon rate of 5.38% and the Class B Notes had a coupon rate of 7.87%.

Chief financial officer Vickie Judy explained why this development was a positive one for Car-Mart.

“We are encouraged by the strong demand for our 2025-1 securitization,” Judy said in a news release. “Compared to our October 2024 securitization, the weighted average coupon improved by 95 basis points. We believe this reflects confidence in our asset quality, particularly as the portfolio continues to benefit from the migration to our new loan origination system (LOS).”

Perhaps investors are thinking more favorably about Car-Mart’s asset quality even though the company’s sales and revenue figures sagged during the second quarter of its fiscal year that closed on Halloween.

Car-Mart previously reported that its 3.5% decline in revenue was primarily driven by a decrease in retail units sold, which slid by 9.1% to 13,784 units.

The company pointed out that while overall revenue dipped, Car-Mart generated a gain in interest income and a $13.2 million benefit in service contract revenue.

Furthermore, Car-Mart said its Q2 sales performance was impacted by lower volumes in September, due partially to weather events in various markets. The company also closed two underperforming dealerships during the quarter.

Car-Mart will share metrics on March 6 from the third quarter of its fiscal year, which includes November, December and January.

“As we navigated industry and economic pressures, we made strategic decisions to ensure we exited stronger and better positioned to profitably grow our market share during the second half of the fiscal year,” Car-Mart president and CEO Doug Campbell said in a news release detailing the Q2 financial statement. “I am pleased with our progress, as we continue to benefit from our enhanced underwriting or loan origination system (LOS).

“We improved deal structures, generated higher down payments, and benefited from higher collections and gross margins. We continue to focus on improving affordability for customers by reducing the average retail price. We’re closely managing expenses during ongoing implementation of technology upgrades to strengthen our operations. We believe Car-Mart is well positioned for future growth and profitability,” Campbell went on to say.