PARSIPPANY, N.J., Feb. 16, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAR) today announced financial results for fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2020.
Despite revenue being down 37% for the fourth quarter compared to prior year, and a net loss of $90 million, we generated positive Adjusted EBITDA of $74 million through disciplined cost removal of more than $500 million. We have now had back-to-back quarters of positive Adjusted EBITDA and continue to show our ability to adapt throughout the pandemic. We are particularly encouraged by the fact that during this challenging travel environment, the Americas generated their highest fourth quarter Adjusted EBITDA margins in the history of our Company.
Full year revenue was down 41% compared to prior year, net loss was $684 million and Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $175 million due to travel restrictions broadly implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our liquidity position at the end of the year was $1.3 billion after returning more than $600 million back into our vehicle programs. We continue to be in a strong position to fund the purchase of our 2021 fleet appropriately.
“I am incredibly proud of the performance of our Company during the most challenging year in Avis Budget Group’s history. I want to thank our employees who helped deliver a safe environment for our customers throughout the pandemic.” said Joe Ferraro, Avis Budget Group Chief Executive Officer. “The fact that the Americas achieved its best fourth quarter Adjusted EBITDA margin on the lowest fourth quarter revenue base in our Company’s history serves as a proof point that our focus on cost savings will continue to deliver results.”
Q4 and Full Year Highlights
- As a response to the pandemic, we created our Avis Safety Pledge and Budget Worry-Free Promise to keep our customers and employees safe. We have expanded our partnerships to enhance the cleanliness and disinfection of our rental facilities and vehicles.
- We continue to expand contactless rentals for our Avis Preferred customers through our app, which also enhances the rental experience.
- We reduced our cost base to match current revenue trends, removing more than $500 million of costs for the quarter, and more than $2.5 billion of costs for 2020.
- We profitably disposed of approximately 40,000 and approximately 250,000 vehicles globally, including a record 18,000 and 127,000 vehicles sold through alternative channels in the U.S., for the quarter and full year, respectively.
- In April, we obtained an amendment to our credit agreement, approved by 97% of our lenders, which provided a covenant holiday and increased the amount of authorized debt.
- In May, we completed a senior secured notes offering of $500 million and subsequently in August, a senior unsecured notes offering of $350 million, using the proceeds to pay off $100 million of existing notes and provide additional liquidity.
- In August, we completed an offering of $650 million of asset-backed securities with a weighted average interest rate of 2.28%, our lowest rate since 2013 for our fleet financing. In January, we also completed an offering of $700 million of asset-backed securities with a weighted average interest rate of 2.42%
Outlook
While we will continually monitor the roll out of the vaccine and its impact on the demand for the travel industry, we cannot predict when increases in the travel industry will occur. Due to these macro uncertainties, we are not providing guidance at this time. However, we remain optimistic about those factors we can control in 2021 and specifically around our ability to minimize cost accretion as revenues return. We believe these actions will position us to be a structurally more profitable company when travel demand normalizes.
Investor Conference Call
We will host a conference call to discuss fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2020 results on February 17, 2021, 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 available on our website and at (877) 660-6853 using conference code 13715071.
About Avis Budget Group
Avis Budget Group, Inc. is a leading global provider of mobility solutions, both through its Avis and Budget brands, which have more than 10,000 rental locations in approximately 180 countries around the world, and through its Zipcar brand, which is the world’s leading car sharing network with more than one million members. Avis Budget Group operates most of its car rental offices in North America, Europe and Australasia directly, and operates primarily through licensees in other parts of the world. Avis Budget Group is headquartered in Parsippany, N.J. More information is available at avisbudgetgroup.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release constitute “forward-looking statements.” Any statements that refer to outlook, expectations or other characterizations of future events, circumstances or results, including all statements related to our future results, impact from the COVID-19 outbreak, cost-saving actions, and cash flows are forward-looking statements. Various risks that could cause future results to differ from those expressed by the forward-looking statements included in this press release include, but are not limited to, the severity and duration of the COVID-19 outbreak, which is expected to continue to have a significant impact on our operations, and resulting economic conditions and related restrictions, the high level of competition in the mobility industry, changes in our fleet costs, including as a result of a change in the cost of new vehicles, manufacturer recalls and/or the value of used vehicles, disruption in the supply of new vehicles, disposition of vehicles not covered by manufacturer repurchase programs, our ability to realize our estimated cost savings on a timely basis, or at all, the financial condition of the manufacturers that supply our rental vehicles which could affect their ability to perform their obligations under our repurchase and/or guaranteed depreciation arrangements, the significant decline in travel demand as a result of COVID-19, including the current and any further disruptions in airline passenger traffic, the absence of an improvement in or any further deterioration in economic conditions generally, particularly during our peak season and/or in key market segments, any occurrence or threat of terrorism, the current and any future pandemic diseases or other natural disasters, any changes to the cost or supply of fuel, risks related to acquisitions or integration of acquired businesses, risks associated with litigation, governmental or regulatory inquiries or investigations, risks related to the security of our information technology systems, disruptions in our communication networks, changes in tax or other regulations, a significant increase in interest rates or borrowing costs, our ability to obtain financing for our global operations, including the funding of our vehicle fleet via asset-backed securities markets, any fluctuations related to the mark-to-market of derivatives which hedge our exposure to exchange rates, interest rates and fuel costs, our ability to meet the covenants contained in the agreements governing our indebtedness, and our ability to accurately estimate our future results and implement our cost savings actions. Other unknown or unpredictable factors could also have material adverse effects on the Company’s performance or achievements. Important assumptions and other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are specified in Avis Budget Group’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020 and in other filings and furnishings made by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) from time to time. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures and Key Metrics
This release, including the Outlook section, includes financial measures such as Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income, Adjusted Free Cash Flow, Adjusted pretax income and Adjusted diluted earnings per share, as well as other financial measures that are not considered generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) measures as defined under SEC rules. Important information regarding such measures is contained in the financial tables to this release and in Appendix I, including the definitions of these measures and reconciliations to the closest comparable GAAP measures. The Company and its management believe that these non-GAAP measures are useful to investors in measuring the comparable results of the Company period-over-period. The GAAP measures most directly comparable to Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Free Cash Flow, Adjusted pretax income (loss), Adjusted net income (loss) and Adjusted diluted earnings (loss) per share are net income (loss), net cash provided by operating activities, income (loss) before income taxes, net income (loss) and diluted earnings (loss) per share, respectively. The Company believes it is impracticable to provide a reconciliation to the most comparable GAAP measures for 2021 due to the degree of uncertainty associated with forecasting the reconciling items and amounts. Foreign currency translation effects on the Company’s results are quantified by translating the current period’s non-U.S. dollar-denominated results using the currency exchange rates of the prior period of comparison including any related gains and losses on currency hedges. Per-unit fleet costs, which represent vehicle depreciation, lease charges and gain or loss on vehicle sales, divided by average rental fleet, are calculated on a per-month basis.
Contact
David Calabria
IR@avisbudget.com
PR@avisbudget.com
Appendix I
Avis Budget Group, Inc.
DEFINITIONS OF NON-GAAP MEASURES AND KEY METRICS
Adjusted EBITDA
The accompanying press release presents Adjusted EBITDA, which represents income (loss) from continuing operations before non-vehicle related depreciation and amortization, any impairment charges, restructuring and other related charges, early extinguishment of debt costs, non-vehicle related interest, transaction-related costs, net, charges for unprecedented personal-injury and other legal matters, non-operational charges related to shareholder activist activity, gain on sale of equity method investment in China, COVID-19 charges and income taxes. Net charges for unprecedented personal-injury and other legal matters, which include legal charges of a nature not previously incurred by the company and gain on sale of equity method investment in China are recorded within operating expenses in our consolidated condensed statement of operations. Non-operational charges related to shareholder activist activity include third party advisory, legal and other professional service fees and are recorded within selling, general and administrative expenses in our consolidated results of operations. COVID-19 charges include unusual, direct and incremental costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as minimum annual guaranteed rent in excess of concession fees for the period, overflow parking for idle vehicles and related shuttling costs, incremental cleaning supplies to sanitize vehicles and facilities and other charges, and losses associated with vehicles damaged in overflow parking lots, net of insurance proceeds, and are primarily recorded within operating expenses in our consolidated condensed statement of operations. We have revised our definition of Adjusted EBITDA to exclude COVID-19 and other unprecedented legal matters. We did not revise prior years’ Adjusted EBITDA amounts because there were no other charges similar in nature to these. Adjusted EBITDA includes stock-based compensation expense and deferred financing fee amortization totaling $9 million and $10 million in fourth quarter 2020 and 2019, respectively and totaling $31 million and $44 million in the year ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.
We believe that Adjusted EBITDA is useful to investors as a supplemental measure in evaluating the aggregate performance of our operating businesses and in comparing our results from period to period. Adjusted EBITDA is the measure that is used by our management, including our chief operating decision maker, to perform such evaluation. Adjusted EBITDA is also a component in the determination of management’s compensation. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for net income or other income statement data prepared in accordance with GAAP and our presentation of Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly-titled measures used by other companies. A reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA from net income (loss) recognized under GAAP is provided on Table 5.
Adjusted Earnings Non-GAAP Measures
The accompanying press release and tables present Adjusted pretax income (loss), Adjusted net income (loss) and Adjusted diluted earnings (loss) per share, which exclude certain items. We believe that these measures referred to above are useful to investors as supplemental measures in evaluating the aggregate performance of the Company. We exclude restructuring and other related charges, transaction-related costs, costs related to early extinguishment of debt and certain other items as such items are not representative of the results of operations of our business less a provision for income taxes derived utilizing applicable statutory tax rates for each item. A reconciliation of our Adjusted earnings Non-GAAP measures from the appropriate measures recognized under GAAP is provided on Table 5.
Adjusted Free Cash Flow
Represents Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities adjusted to reflect the cash inflows and outflows relating to capital expenditures, the investing and financing activities of our vehicle programs, asset sales, if any, and to exclude debt extinguishment costs, transaction-related costs, restructuring and other related charges, COVID-19 charges and non-operational charges related to shareholder activist activity. We have revised our definition of Adjusted Free Cash Flow to exclude COVID-19 charges and have not revised prior years’ Adjusted Free Cash Flow amounts as there were no other charges similar in nature to these. We believe this change is meaningful to investors as it brings the measurement in line with our other non-GAAP measures. We believe that Adjusted Free Cash Flow is useful to management and investors in measuring the cash generated that is available to be used to repay debt obligations, repurchase stock, pay dividends and invest in future growth through new business development activities or acquisitions. Adjusted Free Cash Flow should not be construed as a substitute in measuring operating results or liquidity, and our presentation of Adjusted Free Cash Flow may not be comparable to similarly-titled measures used by other companies. A reconciliation of Adjusted Free Cash Flow to the appropriate measure recognized under GAAP is provided on Table 4.
Adjusted EBITDA Margin
Represents Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues.
Available Rental Days
Defined as Average Rental Fleet times the numbers of days in a given period.
Average Rental Fleet
Represents the average number of vehicles in our fleet during a given period of time.
Currency Exchange Rate Effects
Represents the difference between current-period results as reported and current-period results translated at the prior-period average exchange rates plus any related currency hedges.
Net Corporate Debt
Represents corporate debt minus cash and cash equivalents.
Net Corporate Leverage
Represents Net Corporate Debt divided by Adjusted EBITDA for the twelve months prior to the date of calculation.
Per-Unit Fleet Costs
Represents vehicle depreciation, lease charges and gain or loss on vehicles sales, divided by Average Rental Fleet.
Rental Days
Represents the total number of days (or portion thereof) a vehicle was rented during a 24-hour period.
Revenue per Day
Represents revenues divided by Rental Days.
Vehicle Utilization
Represents Rental Days divided by Available Rental Days.