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Avis Budget Group Reports Positive Earnings and Removes an Additional $1 Billion of Expenses in Third Quarter

PARSIPPANY, N.J., Oct. 29, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAR) today announced third quarter 2020 financial results, with Net income of $45 million and Adjusted net income of $79 million.

Despite revenue being down 44% compared to the same period in the prior year, we achieved positive Adjusted EBITDA of $220 million in the third quarter through cost removal actions and sizing fleet to demand by selling over 100,000 vehicles globally. During the quarter we removed approximately $1 billion of costs, bringing the total to $2 billion year to date, and we are now on track to deliver more than $2.5 billion of cost removal for the full year. 

We generated positive cash flow from operations and from Adjusted Free Cash flow in the quarter by implementing aggressive cost saving actions, taking advantage of sequential improvement in rental demand, and right-sizing our vehicle fleet. This resulted in our liquidity position at the end of the quarter to be $2.4 billion. Given the current operating environment, we believe our liquidity position is now robust enough to return the excess equity that we accessed earlier in the year back into our ABS facilities. This will position us to fund the purchase of our 2021 fleet appropriately.

We took advantage of a strong used vehicle market globally exceeding the prior year’s vehicle dispositions by 50%. Fleet for the quarter was down 29% year-over-year with global utilization peaking in the 70% range, further demonstrating our ability to flex our fleet size up or down even during disruptive market conditions.

“We remain focused on what we can control. We have removed more than $2 billion of cost globally throughout the year, with more expected to come in the fourth quarter,” said Joe Ferraro, Avis Budget Group Chief Executive Officer. “Those cost removals along with our demonstrated history of aligning our fleet with demand allowed us to achieve both strong positive Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Free Cash Flow, despite these difficult times.”

Q3 Highlights

  • We continued to reduce our cost base to match current revenue trends, removing another $1 billion of costs. We have removed more than $2 billion of costs since implementing our cost saving actions earlier this year.
  • We profitably disposed of 75,000 vehicles in the U.S., including a record 49,000 vehicles sold through alternative channels.
  • We completed a senior notes offering of $350 million, and used the proceeds to pay off $100 million of existing notes and provide additional liquidity. We also completed an offering of $650 million of asset-backed securities for a weighted average interest rate of 2.28%, our lowest rate since 2013 for our fleet financing.
  • We continued 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 the use of our app, which also enhances the rental experience.

Outlook

We are a seasonal business and anticipate normal fourth quarter seasonal declines in demand as we move from the peak summer period to the shoulder fall and winter period. Although we believe the travel environment will remain challenged, we still expect to be Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Free Cash Flow positive excluding the return of vehicle equity for the fourth quarter.

Investor Conference Call

We will host a conference call to discuss third quarter results on October 30, 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 available on our website and at (877) 660-6853 using conference code 13711168.

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 11,000 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 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, any further deterioration in economic conditions generally, particularly during our peak season and/or in key market segments, any further deterioration in travel demand, including airline passenger traffic, 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 six months ended June 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 and Adjusted Free Cash Flow, 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 the fourth quarter 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

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