14.05.2006

United up by over 15%

United Rentals the world’s largest equipment rental company which operates over 60,000 aerial lifts, has reported its first quarter results.

Revenues increased by 15.6 percent to $846 million, 13.5 percent of which was organic ‘same store’ growth.
Net income jumped by 67 percent to $20 million compared to $12 million for the same period in 2005. Free cash flow for the quarter was $47 million after a capital expenditure of $264 million.

At the same time the company raised its full year 2006 revenues estimates to $4 billion and nudged its earnings outlook upwards by two percent. It also expected to generate $175 million of free cash flow after spending approximately $900 million of capital expenditure.

The company also said that during the period rental rates increased by 6.5 percent, while financial utilisation increased by five percent to 58.6 percent.

The size of the rental fleet, as measured by original equipment cost, was $4.0 billion and the average age of

Wayland Hicks, chief executive officer, said, "Improved rental rates and higher time utilisation on a larger rental fleet, together with excellent contractor supplies growth, helped us continue our strong performance this quarter. We achieved record first quarter dollar utilisation of 58.6%.

"We are continuing to make significant strategic investments to take advantage of the growth opportunities in our market. We remain focused on driving revenue growth, improving our margins and increasing our return on capital.