AEO Corporate Strategy and Digital Growth slide image

AEO Corporate Strategy and Digital Growth

Forward Looking Statements SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995 AEO INC. This presentation and related statements by management contain forward-looking statements (as such term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995), which are based on the views and beliefs of management, as well as assumptions and estimates made by management.. All forward- looking statements made by the company involve material risks and uncertainties and are subject to change based on many important factors, some of which may be beyond the company's control. Words such as "estimate," "project," "plan," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "potential," "will," and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements. Our forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our corporate strategy and the ability of our offering of new convertible senior unsecured notes to minimize COVID-19 business disruptions. Except as may be required by applicable law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise and even if experience or future changes make it clear that any projected results expressed or implied therein will not be realized. The following factors, in addition to the risks disclosed in Item 1A., Risk Factors, of the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended February 1, 2020 and our subsequent reports filed with the SEC, in some cases have affected, and in the future could affect, the company's financial performance and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any of the forward-looking statements included in this presentation or otherwise made by management: the anticipated impact to consumer demand and our supply chain due to the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19); the risk that the company's operating, financial and capital plans may not be achieved; our inability to anticipate customer demand and changing fashion trends and to manage our inventory commensurately; seasonality of our business; our inability to achieve planned store financial performance; our inability to react to raw material cost, labor and energy cost increases; our inability to gain market share in the face of declining shopping center traffic; our inability to respond to changes in e-commerce and leverage omni-channel demands; our inability to expand internationally; difficulty with our international merchandise sourcing strategies; challenges with information technology systems, including safeguarding against security breaches; and changes in global economic and financial conditions, and the resulting impact on consumer confidence and consumer spending, as well as other changes in consumer discretionary spending habits, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and liquidity. NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES This presentation contains certain financial measures that differ from what is reported under generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"). These non- GAAP financial measures include adjusted EBITDA, free cash flow and levered adjusted free cash flow, which management believes provides investors with useful supplemental information to evaluate the Company's ongoing operations and to compare with past and future periods. Management also uses certain non-GAAP measures internally for forecasting, budgeting, and measuring its operating performance. These measures should be viewed as supplementing, and not as an alternative or substitute for, the Company's financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP. The methods used by the Company to calculate its non-GAAP financial measures may differ significantly from methods used by other companies to compute similar measures. As a result, any non-GAAP financial measures presented herein may not be comparable to similar measures provided by other companies. A reconciliation of the Company's non-GAAP measures used in these materials to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures has been provided to you in the appendix to this presentation. 1
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