PARSIPPANY, N.J., Feb. 19, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAR) today reported a record fourth quarter and results for the full year ended December 31, 2019, driven by the strong performance in the Americas. We are also providing our outlook for 2020.
Fourth Quarter 2019 over Fourth Quarter 2018 Highlights:
- Revenues increased to a record $2.2 billion, up 6% excluding currency exchange rate movements
- Net income was $142 million or $1.90 per diluted share and Adjusted net income was $54 million or $0.73 per diluted share
- Adjusted EBITDA increased to a record $143 million
- Per-Unit Fleet Costs improved 3% excluding exchange rate effects
- Utilization improved by 100 basis points
Full Year 2019 over Full Year 2018 Highlights:
- Revenues increased to a record $9.2 billion, up 2% excluding currency exchange rate movements, for a tenth consecutive year of revenue growth
- Net income was $302 million or $3.98 per diluted share and Adjusted net income was $279 million or $3.68 per diluted share
- Adjusted EBITDA increased to $788 million, up 4% excluding currency exchange rate movements
- Per-Unit Fleet Costs improved 5% excluding exchange rate effects
- Repurchased approximately 2.2 million shares for a total of $62 million
Total Company
Fourth quarter revenues increased 6% compared to prior year excluding a $19 million impact from currency exchange rate movements, primarily due to a 5% increase in Rental Days and a 1% increase in Revenue per Day, excluding exchange rate effects. Per-Unit Fleet Costs, excluding exchange rate effects, improved by 3% and utilization improved 100 basis points. For the quarter, net income was $142 million, or $1.90 per diluted share. Adjusted EBITDA was $143 million and Adjusted net income was $54 million, or $0.73 per diluted share.
Full year revenues increased 2% compared to prior year excluding a $165 million impact from currency exchange rate movements, primarily due to a 3% increase in Rental Days. Per-Unit Fleet Costs, excluding exchange rate effects, improved by 5% and utilization improved 50 basis points. For the year, net income was $302 million, or $3.98 per diluted share. Adjusted EBITDA was $788 million including a $23 million impact from currency exchange rate movements and Adjusted net income was $279 million, or $3.68 per diluted share.
“We had a record fourth quarter, led by significant overperformance in the Americas and the single best December I have seen in the United States in my career,” said Joe Ferraro, Avis Budget Group Interim Chief Executive Officer. “Adjusting our full year results to exclude exchange rate effects, we delivered Adjusted EBITDA of $800 million for 2019, at the high end of the range we provided in October. Additionally, the quarter is off to a strong start as the momentum we experienced in December has continued.”
Americas Segment
Izzy Martins, Interim President, Americas commented, “The Americas delivered outstanding results in the fourth quarter, with a record Adjusted EBITDA of $144 million, which was 17% higher than prior year, driven by 8% rental day growth and improved vehicle costs.”
International Segment
“We were able to grow International revenue year-over-year, while increasing revenue per day, excluding exchange rate effects, for the second quarter in a row,” said Keith Rankin, President, International.
Capital Allocation and Liquidity
We repurchased approximately 2.2 million shares during 2019, for approximately $62 million under our share repurchase program.
As of December 31, 2019, our corporate debt was approximately $3.4 billion and cash and cash equivalents totaled $686 million, bringing net corporate debt to $2.7 billion, and our net corporate leverage ratio to 3.5x.
Weighted average diluted shares outstanding were 74.4 million in the quarter compared to 77.6 million in the prior year, a 4% quarter-over-quarter reduction.
Investor Conference Call
Avis Budget Group will host a conference call to discuss fourth quarter and full year results and its outlook on February 20, 2020, at 8:30 a.m. (ET). Investors may access the call at ir.avisbudgetgroup.com or by dialing (877) 407-2991 and a replay will be available on our website and at (877) 660-6853 using conference code 13698431.
Outlook
Our full-year 2020 outlook includes non-GAAP financial measures and excludes the effect of future changes in currency exchange rates. We believe that it is impracticable to provide a reconciliation to the most comparable GAAP measures due to the forward-looking nature of these forecasted Adjusted earnings measures and the degree of uncertainty associated with forecasting the reconciling items and amounts. We further believe that providing estimates of the amounts that would be required to reconcile the forecasted adjusted measures to forecasted GAAP measures would imply a degree of precision that would be confusing or misleading to investors. The after-tax effect of such reconciling items could be significant to our future quarterly or annual results.
2020 guidance: