Avis Projects Year-Over-Year Gains in Revenue, More
A day after it and Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group announced collaboration to gain antitrust approval for a merger, Avis Budget Group revealed some more favorable news for the company on Thursday.
After looking at preliminary data, Avis projects that its third-quarter revenue was about $1.5 billion, an uptick from a year ago, and that its adjusted EBITDA — when certain items are taken out of the equation — finished in a range between $210 million and $220 million, which also would be a year-over-year gain.
The company also expects to see improvement in other areas, as well. Pretax income, with certain items not included, is likely to be between $145 and $155 million. Management predicts pretax income will be somewhere between $135 million and $145 million, also a gain.
Moreover, there is projected to be revenue and adjusted EBITDA improvements for all three operating segments.
For the domestic car rental segment, in particular, its revenue climbed due to the higher volume of rental days, which was slowed a bit by time and mileage revenue per day dipping. Avis said it had projected rental days would increase.
Furthermore, preliminary data led Avis to project that it will surpass $600 million for its cash balance, as of the end of the quarter. The corporate (non-vehicle-related) debt balance is expected to be about $2.1 billion as of Sept. 30.
“We expect that our third-quarter results will show that vehicle rental demand has begun to strengthen, that our cost-saving initiatives have continued to produce meaningful benefits, and that those two trends have had a significant positive effect on our earnings,” stated Avis chairman and chief executive officer Ronald Nelson.
“We are encouraged by recent trends in our business and by the substantial year-over-year increase in pretax income we expect to report in the third quarter,” he added.