Mark Irion
Analyst · Northcoast Research. Please go ahead
Thank you, Larry, and good morning everyone. Please turn to Slide 14 for the details of our third quarter 2019 results. Equipment rental revenue increased 2.4% from $449 million to $439.6 million in the third quarter of 2019. Year-over-year growth was driven primarily by improved pricing, but was partially offset by a reduction in re-rent revenue. As part of our self-help initiatives for 2019, we are being successfully focusing on utilizing our own rental fleet and re-renting less fleet. Excluding re-rent revenue from our results, pure rental revenue increased 4.5% year-over-year. Pricing clearly drove our rental revenue growth as fleet on rent declined 1.6% compared to a strong third quarter last year. As Larry mentioned, our strategy for 2019 with self-help with a focus on utilizing existing fleet. In the third quarter, we got the rate structure right but not the utilization. We’ve always stated that we have deferred – rate as reported time utilization that our expectation going into the quarter was that we could drive annual growth by improving our time utilization. We did not quite get the results we expected. It's a challenge for the team to grow all in the organization is holding OEC fleet flat but we remain focused on the challenge however and expect that results going forward with ongoing focus. In addition, the third quarter is seasonally one of the slowest for equipment rental sales as we reduced our sales of rental equipment and sales of new equipment parts and services in the third quarter. Our strategic reductions impact to total revenues has increased 1.6% year-over-year to $508.1 million. I’ll talk to that in more details in our revenue comparison slide. We reported net income of $9.4 million or $0.32 per diluted share in this year third quarter compared with a net income of $46.2 million or $1.60 per diluted share in 2019. This year’s results also included 32.6 million in pretax costs related to the financing of our debt. Excluding these costs, as well as spin-off expense, restructuring cost and related taxes, adjusted net income in the third quarter of 2019 was $43.2 million or $1.48 per diluted share, compared to $36.0 million or $1.27 per diluted share last year. More details regarding our net income bridge and the non-GAAP reconciliations are included in our Appendix. Adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter of 2019 increased 3.9% or $7.9 million to $209.4 million over the same period of 2018. Adjusted EBITDA margin improved 220 basis points year-over-year to 41.2% in the third quarter. The third quarter reflected excellent progress in terms of flow-through. We reported REBITDA flow-through of 83.3%, which benefited from reductions in re-rent expenses, as well as reductions in SG&A and flattish growth in DOE. Our REBITDA margin rose to 24.9% during the third quarter of this year, an increase a 90 basis points for the third quarter in 2019. The increased average OEC in the third quarter of 2019 by 0.4% over the prior year. We are focusing carefully on fleet at the location level to ensure that we are maximizing fleet utilization before we make any further additions. OEC at the end of the third quarter was $3.94 billion. Our focus on rates delivered excellent results in the quarter, pricing improved 4.5% year-over-year holding up with special results concerning with a year ago rates in the third quarter were up by 3.3%. Slide 16 focuses on the changes in total revenue for the third quarter and nine months period. Equipment rental revenue grew 3.4% to $459.6 million, although the increase was impacted by strategic reductions in re-rent revenue compared with last year's quarter. Pure rental revenue was up 4.5% year-over-year. In the third quarter of 2019, sales of rental equipment declined $14.6 million excluding currency. The lower year-over-year sales in the third quarter, reflected the company's net capital plans for 2019 as we continue to improve fleet mix and age while focusing on improving time utilization. The largest portion of our sales of rental equipment in the third quarter went through auction channels and accounted for 52% of the total sales volume, compared with 45% in the prior year. We generated proceeds of approximately 40% of OEC, due to the larger concentration of auction sales during the quarter. On Slide 16 we review the Q3 adjusted EBITDA bridge. Adjustment EBITDA for the third quarter was $209.4 million, an increase of 3.9% or $7.9 million, compared to $201.5 million in the third quarter of 2018. The bridge shows that the largest contributor was increased equipment rental revenue with growth of $11.1 million as compared to the prior year. Direct operating costs rose slightly by $3 million with the currency compared with the third quarter of 2018 as we continue to control expenses of improved operating efficiencies, such as lower, deliveries and freight expenses. Those reductions were partially offset in the third quarter by improved facility costs, as well as increased personnel and personnel-related expenses. Selling general and administrative costs were low in the third quarter of 2019 primarily due to the reduction of consulting and professional fees. These reductions were partially offset by additional selling expenses. REBITDA measures the contribution from our core rental business without the impact of sales of equipment, parts and supplies. We believe REBITDA provides a better comparison with our industry peers as it excludes the impact of varying depreciation policy. Third quarter 2019 REBITDA flow-through was once again strong at 83.3% and drove the margin of 44.9%, an increase of 90 basis points compared with the Q3 of 2018. On Slide 17, we have broken out our fleet expenditures and disposals on an OEC cost basis and have provided a rolling balance of the OEC value of our total fleet. A quarterly breakout of this information is also in the Appendix. Total fleet at OEC was $3.94 billion as of September 30, 2019. The average OEC of our rental fleet during the quarter was about flat with an increase of 0.4% over the prior year quarter. For the third quarter of 2019, fleet expenditures at OEC were $170 million with fleet disposals of $89 million. The average age of our disposals in the third quarter was 80 months. On a cash basis, net Fleet CapEx for the nine months was $349.8 million, compared with $428.4 million in the prior year. Non-fleet capital expenditures for the quarter totaled $34.9 million, down from $58.5 million in 2018. We reduced the average age of our fleet to approximately 44 months at the end of the third quarter from 46 months in the comparable period last year. On Slide 18, we can see the total debt was $2.2 billion as of September 30, 2019, about the same as the prior year. Net leverage decreased to 3 times, compared with 3.4 times in the comparable quarter and solidly within our targeted range of 2.5 times to 3.5 times. We had ample liquidity of over $1 billion as of September 30, 2019. For the nine months ended September 30, 2019 free cash flow was a positive $55.5 million, compared with a negative free cash flow of $108 million last year, a substantial improvement. On Slide 19, based on our expectations to focus the demand in our market and our continued margin improvement focus we tightly manage operating expenses. We are updating our guidance range for adjusted EBITDA for 2019. Our new guidance range is $740 million to $750 million or an increase of 8% to 10% compared to 2018. We are narrowing our guidance of net fleet capital expenditures to the top of our previous range to $400 million to $410 million. The planned reduction in capital spending over the prior year, along with expectation of improved EBITDA should contribute to strong free cash flow for the year. Our overall strategy is expected to continue to provide ample liquidity and the financial flexibility to fund our strategic growth, to improve our operating margins, to serve our customers and create value for our shareholders. And now, I'll pass the call back to Larry.