04.11.2009

H&E falls 37%

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, based crane, access and earthmoving distirbutor and rental company H&E Equipment, has reported third quarter revenues of $175.6 million, 37 percent down on the same period last year. The net result for the period was a pre-tax loss of $2.54 million compared to a profit of $27.9 million in 2008.

All business areas were down with rental falling 42 percent and new sales by more than 50 percent. Used sales were boosted by the sale of the company’s Yale fork truck fleet.

Nine month year to date revenues were $542 million down 33 percent on last year, while pre-tax profits were $1.36 million compared to a profit of $69.7 million.

While revenues and profitability have been hit badly, the company has managed to reduce its net debt during the past nine months by 23 percent to $257 million.

Chief executive John Engquist said: "Our business environment remains very challenging and we have not seen any seasonal increase in demand during the third quarter. While we are pleased to have experienced stabilisation of our fleet utilization during the third quarter, we have not seen improvement in the structural economic problems that continue to impact the demand for our products and services. While utilisation has stabilized, it has stabilised at a low level. As a result, rental pricing remains weak”.

“We have successfully reduced debt and increased liquidity during this prolonged recession. We continue to focus on our balance sheet, which positions our company to deal with the current weak environment and to take full advantage of the recovery when it begins.”