First Cash to add 16 stores with acquisition

Just two months after it acquired 24 pawn shops in Colorado and three other states, Arlington-based First Cash Financial Services said Thursday it agreed to buy another 16 pawn shops in Colorado for about $46 million. The deal will give the company 33 full-service pawn stores in a Rocky Mountain market area that includes Colorado, Wyoming and western Nebraska and give it 127 new locations so far this year. It expects to add a total of 140 to 145 this year, boosting its store count by 21 percent from its 678 stores at the start of the year. First Cash also said its lenders agreed to increase its credit facility to $175 million from $100 million.

-- Jim Fuquay