Earnings Labs

Herc Holdings Inc. (HRI)

Q2 2023 Earnings Call· Tue, Jul 25, 2023

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning. My name is Aldra, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Herc Holdings, Inc. Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. Today’s conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] At this time I would like to turn the conference over to Leslie Hunziker, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Leslie Hunziker

Analyst

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Herc Rentals’ second quarter 2023 earnings conference call and webcast. Earlier today, our press release, presentation slides and 10-Q were filed with the SEC, and all are posted to the Events page of our IR website at ir.hercrentals.com. Today, we’re reviewing our second quarter 2023 results with comments on operations and our financials, including our view of the industry and our strategic outlook. The prepared remarks will be followed by an open Q&A. Now let’s move on to our Safe Harbor and GAAP reconciliation on Slide 3. Today’s call will include forward-looking statements. These statements are based on the environment as we see it today and therefore, involve risks and uncertainties. I would caution you that our actual results could differ materially from the forward-looking statements made on this call. You should also refer to the Risk Factors section in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, and our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period end June 30, 2023. In addition to the financial results presented on a GAAP basis, we will be discussing non-GAAP information that we believe is useful in evaluating the company’s operating performance. Reconciliations for these non-GAAP measures are the closest GAAP equivalent can be found in the conference call materials. A replay of this call can be accessed via dial-in or through the webcast on our website. Replay instructions were included in our earnings release this morning. We have not given permission for any recording of this call and do not approve or sanction any transcribing of the call. This morning, I’m joined by Larry Silber, President and Chief executive Officer; Aaron Birnbaum, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; and Mark Humphrey, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. I’ll now turn the call over to Larry.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Thank you, Leslie, and good morning everyone. Please turn to Slide number 4. We had a strong first half for 2023. Total revenue and adjusted EBITDA were second quarter records driven by a 7.8% increase in rental rate and above market volume growth. Additionally, we ramped up fleet dispositions in the quarter to adjust to higher OEM shipments and to take advantage of the still strong used equipment market. Continued disruptions in the studio entertainment end markets related to labor strikes in the film and TV industry, as well as the sale of three times more fleet year-over-year weighed on EBITDA margin in the quarter. Excluding studio entertainment margin and flow through significantly improved year-over-year. You can also see on this slide that our capital allocation strategy focused on profitable growth investments supported an increase of 40 basis points in ROIC in the second quarter compared with last year. On Slide number 5, it’s clear that we continue to significantly outperform the equipment rental industry. ARA estimates the industry grew 8% in the second quarter compared with our rental revenue growth of 16%. Revenue from non-residential, industrial and infrastructure work remains strong and the largest rental companies with fleet capacity and the best branch network coverage are winning an outsized portion of the construction starts. Our year-over-year increase in revenue is two times greater than the industry despite continuing challenges of the studio entertainment business with the Actors Guild recently joining the screenwriters on strike, we now are prudently planning for studio shutdowns to continue through the third quarter and possibly through year end. Aaron will give you more color into the adjustments we’re making to our fleet plan as a result, and Mark will give you insight into the financial impact. Total revenues got an incremental boost in the…

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

Thanks, Larry, and good morning everyone. The solid performance of our operations and field support teams, combined with steady demand in our end markets have traded a favorable environment for us. Thanks to the hard work of Team Herc, we have demonstrated continued progress in our journey to build scale and market leadership through flexibility, efficiency as strategic network and a customer first mindset. Turning to Slide 8. Our day starts with safety, which is at the core of everything we do. As you know, our major internal safety program focuses on perfect days, that is days with no OSHA reportable incidents, no at-fault motor vehicle accidents, and no DOT violations. We strive for 100% perfect days throughout the organization. In the second quarter, on a branch-by-branch measure, all of our branch operations achieved at least 97% of days as perfect. Equally notable, our total recordable incident rate represents best-in-class performance that showcases our commitment to our people and our customers. On Slide 9, let me shift to a progress update on our growth strategies. One of the key initiatives of our urban market growth strategy is expansion through greenfield locations and acquisitions. In the second quarter, we added 10 locations to our network, six greenfield locations, and four locations from three new acquisitions. As you know, we focus on acquisition opportunities in high growth markets that complement our current branch network and fit our strategic financial and cultural filters. Of the acquisitions in the quarter, all were general rental companies in the top 50 MSAs, one in Salt Lake City, another in Denver, a top 20 market, and a third in Phoenix, the top 10 markets. These acquisitions support our strategic goals of increased density and urban markets. Moreover, many of the mega projects being announced during the geographies…

Mark Humphrey

Analyst

Thanks, Aaron, and good morning, everyone. I’m starting on Slide 14 with a summary of our key metrics for the second quarter. Larry and Aaron touched on many of these line items. So I’m just going to provide some additional color. For rental revenue about two thirds of the growth was organic and about a third came from acquisitions. Our organic growth alone continues to outpace that of the rental market. For total revenue, benefits are coming from the still strong used equipment market as well as our sales channel shift to wholesale and retail, which delivered incremental growth. Earnings per share in the second quarter of 2023 increased 12%. Adjusted EBITDA increased 24% over the prior year to a second quarter record $352 million, and our adjusted EBITDA margin was 43.9% in Q2 2023. Let’s walk through the margin drivers on Slide 15. Here you can see the rental revenue and adjusted EBITDA walks year-over-year. In the revenue chart, rental rate was up 7.8%. Fleet on rent increased 17.3% and mix was unfavorable by approximately 9% compared with the second quarter a year ago. Strong overall pricing benefited from continued improvement in both spot and contract pricing. In the second quarter, we saw stable double-digit rate increases in the spot market while contract rates continued to be favorably renegotiated. Continued rate growth comes from utilizing our proven and effective pricing tools, the discipline and professionalism of our sales team, and the rollover benefits from the contract rate increases we began securing last year. With pricing up 7.4% through year-to-date through June, we now expect rate growth in the second half of the year to be in the mid-single digit range. Our average fleet on rent at OEC in the second quarter was lower than our average fleet growth. As…

Larry Silber

Analyst

Thanks, Mark. Now please turn the Slide number 19. Everything we do starts with our vision, mission, and values, and a purpose statement that focuses on equipping our customers and communities to build a brighter future. We do what’s right. We’re in this together. We take responsibility, we achieve results, and we prove ourselves every day. Now, before moving on to Q&A, I want to let you know that we’ll be hosting our next Investor Day on November 7 – November 2nd, November 2, mark your calendars. The event will take place at the New York Stock Exchange and will be available via webcast with market opportunities market significantly growing for Herc and having already achieved nearly all of the three year targets that we set in 2021. This will be an opportunity to set new guideposts for our future growth trajectory. I hope you’ll be able to join us in New York City. With that operator, we’ll take our first question.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We’ll take our first question from Jerry Revich at Goldman Sachs.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Good morning, Jerry.

Mark Humphrey

Analyst

Good morning, Jerry.

Jerry Revich

Analyst

Hey, Larry. Good morning everyone. Aaron, I’m wondering if we just expand on your comments on utilization rates improving in the third quarter, so normally seasonally, I think the business improves by three points to four points 3Q versus 2Q. It sounds like you expect above the normal improvement, in utilization based on your comments on trucks, but I’m wondering if you just expand on that comment just to make sure I got it right.

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

Yes, typically, Jerry, as you roll into the third quarter, the business seasonally kind of peaks as you build up into October, and we started seeing that as soon as July began. The uptick in activity and all the segments, especially the construction activity picking up and still in the way that we expected it to go, as we start the third quarter.

Jerry Revich

Analyst

And just so we’re on the same page, Aaron, so in line with normal seasonality is what you’re seeing in line with that, a point or so sequential build in capital utilization?

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

Yes, Jerry, it’s in line with normal seasonality and uptick in utilization as we build through the quarter.

Jerry Revich

Analyst

Okay, super. And then can I ask in terms of the supply chain constraints easing, can you expand on that point? So in addition to trucks, what other categories has supply eased and you know, presumably there are some categories where industry supply is, might be rising to levels that are too high at this point. Can you just talk about the variability by CAT class, if you don’t mind?

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

Well, I would describe it as that some, some types of product OEM manufacturing has improved their delivery and some hasn’t. It’s still very delayed. For example, some product types, typically some smaller equipment that we would purchase. You can get under six months or under three months of lead time depending on what type of equipment you’re looking at. Remember we’re look, we carry over 2,000 different skews of equipment. On the other end of the spectrum equipment types such as most aerial product categories and what we call telehandlers or reach forklifts are really extended still, 12 month fleet lead time on those type of products. So we’re seeing normalization and improvement, but it is not across all fleet sites.

Jerry Revich

Analyst

And lastly Mark, can I ask if pricing was really strong in the quarter, are you expecting the same sequential price builds that we would see under normal seasonality or is the entertainment business keeping a lid on things for you? Can you just talk about the cadence? Because if it is normal seasonality, it looks like pricing would be closer to 6% plus in the back half versus the mid-single digits that we spoke about.

Mark Humphrey

Analyst

Yes, I think that’s right. I mean, I think Jerry, right we posted a seven four in the front half of the year and as you sort of pull that apart, both the contract and spot sort of behaved like we thought it would. And I think as you sort of take that to the back half, our guide is sort of a mid-single-digit back half again, our contracts are performing like we anticipated and there is a tough comp in the back half from a spot perspective.

Jerry Revich

Analyst

Thank you.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Thanks, Jerry.

Operator

Operator

We’ll take our next question from Neil Tyler at Redburn.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Hey, good morning Neil, or good afternoon to you, Neil.

Neil Tyler

Analyst

Yeah, good afternoon. Morning. Two, please, firstly the comment on the sort of phasing of growth CapEx into 2024 and pulling forward some of the fleet disposals. I don’t know if you are willing to, at this point, just give us a sort of shape of the net fleet CapEx from 2023 into 2024, whether that, whether as we stand today, you expect that 2024 number to be at sort of similar level or, higher or lower. That’s the first question please. I’ll come onto the second one in a second.

Mark Humphrey

Analyst

Yes, Neil, I think at this point we haven’t yet sort of determined what our 2024 CapEx level is going to be. I think we’re, we want to wait a little more to see how the year plays out and how we progress. What we’re seeing now is towards the lower end of the guidance for 2023 CapEx. That’s primarily made up of, some increase in disposals, about a $100 million more of disposals at OEC and the fact that, some of the categories, the vendors that Aaron just mentioned are pushing deliveries into Q4 and we really don’t want them in Q4. We want to normalize our fleet receipts for next year into, Q2 and Q3. So if a vendor’s going to be late and not be able to get us equipment in Q3 and they want to push it into Q4, we’re most likely to push them out into Q1 or Q2.

Neil Tyler

Analyst

Yes. Got it. And are you able to sort of give us the shape of what the sort of ticket price impact of fees sort of delayed purchases is, now if you are – if you’re receiving sort of 2021 orders, in 2023 and 2022 orders in 2023, year-on-year into next year, are you currently, I suppose with the question I’m really asking is are you currently benefiting from sort of well below market prices that, might sort of correct into next year?

Mark Humphrey

Analyst

Well, look, I think, we took a vast majority of those price adjustments in the back half of 2022 and through into 2023 fleet planning. So yes, there’s probably some minor amount left from 2022 and the first half of – and the back half of 2021 where we benefited from pricing that was locked in on those orders. But I don’t think it’ll have a material impact on our 2024. In fact, we’d probably be looking since supply – supply chain constraints are improving and the cost of freight and logistics and the fact that these manufacturers don’t have to air freight stuff over, we’re probably looking for some price relief going into our 2024 fleet planning.

Neil Tyler

Analyst

Okay. That, that’s very helpful. And then final question around, the film and TV business. I suppose the, within your planning is that, are you assuming that the rider strike could have influenced that business for the remainder of this financial year is that, what sort of baked in? And then within the guidance, therefore presumably the offset, your ability to maintain EBITDA guidance, part of that comes from, a bit more M&A in the quarter, but the rest is coming from where, please.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Yes, Neil, great question. So look I would say as we went into the beginning of the strike, we weren’t anticipating it going on, but now that, the actors have joined hands with the screenwriters we are planning for it to, really go through the end of the year. And if it ends sooner, if the bonus, if it doesn’t end, that’s baked into our plan, the improvements, you’re right where we’ll be able to maintain that guidance is coming from two areas, primarily a tailwind from our national account business, which has been very strong, as we’re benefiting from the startup of some of these mega projects, onshoring and other activity, and also benefiting, as well from our M&A activity that you mentioned.

Neil Tyler

Analyst

Got it. That’s very helpful. Thank you.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Thanks, Neil.

Operator

Operator

We’ll move next to Rob Wertheimer at Melius Research.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Hey, good morning, Rob.

Rob Wertheimer

Analyst

Yes, hi

Mark Humphrey

Analyst

Hi Rob.

Rob Wertheimer

Analyst

Good morning, guys. I wonder if you could just give us a little bit more exposition on mega projects and just what you’re seeing currently flowing into revenue, if it’s anything material yet. I know things are sort of kicking off what you’re seeing on win rates, if those are still in the future, whether you have a better sense now than last quarter and, what your guess is on timing and when that really helps your financials.

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

Yes, Rob it’s a really exciting space. The mega projects, it’s really occurring. It’s happening. The projects are coming online, say they really started coming online about a year and a half ago, and you can see the additional planned mega projects that are going to carry forward for the next several years. It’s interesting when you get involved in these, it’s really important to have the network, the scale so that you can service these jobs and be close to the projects because they’re not all, a RFP bid environment. A lot of them are just negotiated locally and there’s a lot of subcontractors involved and, a lot of volume of equipment that gets deployed to these big mega projects. So we think it’s going to be, a catalyst for our business for the next couple years and beyond. And really if there’s any other issues going on in the local market, it seems to be covering for a lot of that activity. And as we get through the rest of – as we get the visibility into the rest of this year for mega projects, we track all these and we have communication with the subcontractors and the general contractors, and we are getting better sight into the type of fleet they’re going to need. So that all goes into our fleet planning model as we progress even into 2024 planning.

Rob Wertheimer

Analyst

Can you quantify how big a portion of your revenue it’s come up to be? Is that something you’re willing to share?

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

No, it’s not. Sorry.

Rob Wertheimer

Analyst

No, I understand. Fair enough. And are you seeing actual revenue growth from it right now? Or is that still mostly ahead and I’ll stop there?

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

No, very much revenue growth and as Larry mentioned, our national account sales team, we bolstered that team with more resources, more sales professionals and to capture these opportunities and build strong relationships. And that’s really paying off for us. So, we’re seeing that continually build and good success in that arena for us.

Rob Wertheimer

Analyst

Thank you.

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Next, we’ll go to Mig Dobre at Baird.

Mig Dobre

Analyst

Yes. Thank you and good morning everyone.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Morning.

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

Good morning, Mig.

Mig Dobre

Analyst

One of the things that stood out to me was your fleet age at 46 months, and you were talking about stepping up some of the older equipment disposals. So just kind of looking for a little bit of context around where you see fleet ages exiting 2023, looks like we’re back to pre-COVID levels kind of how you think about this dynamic, maybe even beyond 2023 in terms of your fleet?

Larry Silber

Analyst

Yes, Mig this is Larry. Good morning. Most of the fleet that we’re trying to dispose of is coming from two years of pent-up demand where we did not have a large volume of fleet. Same quarter last year, I think we sold less than $20 million worth of fleet. And so we have some age fleet, and the average age of the fleet that we’re selling today is about 90 months. What we’d like to do is bring that down to that sort of mid-to-low 80 months in the future as we sell it. And when you have a younger fleet that you’re selling, you’re going to capitalize on the used equipment market pricing. We’re fortunate today that because there have been so many constraints and so much demand, even with age fleet, we’re benefiting in the used equipment market and on a year-over-year basis, we have greater than 600 basis points improvement on a really old fleet that we’re selling, like I said, in the 90 month age. So we’d like to get the fleet age that we’re going to sell and dispose of in the future down to mid-to-low 80s. And we think that, by, it’d probably take us still another year or more to get there. So regardless of the average fleet age the disposal age will continue to remain elevated for maybe another year or two until we can bring that down. But look, we said all along in pre-COVID, we’d like to be, mid-40s and we’ll probably be mid-40s by the end of this year. But more importantly, I think you got to look at the fleet age of what we dispose because that drives the used equipment values.

Mig Dobre

Analyst

Understood. And then maybe picking up on one of Aaron’s comments in terms of the impact of mega projects and the way – and the way you’re kind of thinking about adjusting your fleet. I’m curious, are you contemplating maybe leaning into one equipment category versus another based on where you’re seeing this mega project demand? I mean, obviously, the equipment that one would use for, I don’t know, a chip plant might be different than something for roads and bridges. I mean, you tell me.

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

Yes, well, it’s an interesting question. The way I look at mega projects is they’re just a very, very, very big construction project. They take typically the same type of equipment that a smaller construction project would take. So that’s, rental [ph] equipment, concrete equipment, material handling equipment. And what’s good for us is that we have a diversified fleet mix with specialty fleet of our ProSolutions gears that typically would be HVAC equipment, heating equipment, power generation. So as you get these mega projects built and you go inside, there is some differentiation with what’s going on inside the project, whether they’re doing big conveyor systems or there’s clean rooms, different types of equipment goes into those mega projects in a different way, or take an LNG plant very much different than building a chip plant. So what’s great about our fleets is fungible and what’s diverse, and with the good demand planning of what type of fleet’s going to be needed, we can order that fleet from our vendor partners and reallocate that fleet where it needs to be to support those projects.

Mig Dobre

Analyst

Understood. Last question. Larry, you commented that you are looking for some price relief in 2024 from suppliers. Maybe a little more context on that, and I’m curious, is it just surcharges that are rolling off? Or are you engaging in some other type of negotiation there? Thank you.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Well, absolutely engaging. Well, we will be engaging in negotiation where we’re about that, but we fully expect that prices will be rolled back in many categories where there were supply constraints that added to the cost that weren’t necessarily affected by surcharges. Surcharges primarily came, related to transportation and logistics. But we experienced many other price increases around just a general supply constraint around raw material and labor. And that’s sort of leveled off at this point. And so we’re believing that that there’ll be an opportunity to roll back some of those prices and benefit and get some relief where we supported our vendor partners in the past. It’ll be their time to now support us.

Mig Dobre

Analyst

Understood. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Next, we’ll go to Sherif El-Sabbahy with Bank of America.

Sherif El-Sabbahy

Analyst

Hi. Good morning. So in the past you’ve guided to neutral free cash flow, ex-M&A [ph]. Has your free cash flow outlook changed for the year and what do you expect from the second half?

Mark Humphrey

Analyst

Yes, I mean, I think Sherif, we used about $140 million of cash in the front half of the year. And so, the guide is free cash flow neutral ex-M&A for the year, which means we’ll produce somewhere between $140 million, $150 million of cash in the back half of the year.

Sherif El-Sabbahy

Analyst

Got it. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And next, we’ll go to Seth Weber at Wells Fargo Securities.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Good morning, Seth.

Seth Weber

Analyst

Hey guys. Hey, good morning. Hi, thank you for taking the question. I guess I wanted to go back to the [indiscernible] CapEx discussion for a second. This kind of idea of not accepting deliveries, if the OEMs are trying to push them into the fourth quarter. I guess it’s a two part question; would you have taken those orders if they had occurred in the third quarter? And does that effectively show up as a cancellation for you guys and then you have to reset it next year? That’s two part question, I guess. I’m just trying to understand if your appetite for new equipment is lower than it was three months ago, basically.

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

Seth, no, our appetite’s the same. Our net fleet CapEx will be at the low end of the guidance as we mentioned, for the past couple years with supply chain constraints, we’ve been taking fleet whenever we could get our hands on it, and sometimes that was in the wrong time of the year. Maybe it was seasonal equipment or before the normal activity would ramp up. But we’re really kind of moving now towards taking the equipment when we need it to meet demand. And so we’re not canceling orders, but we’re shifting our balance load of when the fleet’s coming in and when we need it. And that’s really the way we’ve always historically operated our business, and we’re going back to that model now.

Seth Weber

Analyst

Okay. So if they – if it could have come to you in the third quarter, you would’ve taken it, is what you’re saying, Aaron?

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

Yes.

Seth Weber

Analyst

Okay. Okay. Thank you. And then just, on the entertainment business, I just want to make sure I’m understanding, does the guidance, the REBITDA margin guide, the $50 million to $60 million, and well does that include – does that include the specialty, the entertainment business? And then I guess my next question is, do you expect dollar utilization to be up year-over-year, even with this issue with this – with the entertainment business for the back half of the year dollar utilization?

Mark Humphrey

Analyst

Hey, Seth, this is Mark. First question that $50 million to $60 million was a flow through guide and that does include the impacts of the studio entertainment business for 2023. And then the second part of your question was on dollar utilization. And no, we do not anticipate dollar utilizations getting back to 2022 levels when you think about it from a perspective of studio entertainment impacting you probably somewhere around a basis point of dollar U and then, time utilization all in year-over-year. We won’t be running as hot in 2023 as we did in 2022.

Seth Weber

Analyst

Got it. Okay. Thank you guys. I appreciate it.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

We’ll go next to Ken Newman at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Ken Newman

Analyst

Hey, good morning guys.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Good morning.

Mark Humphrey

Analyst

Good morning.

Ken Newman

Analyst

My first question is on pricing. I think you talked about rates being up double digits in the spot market. Larry, is the mid-single digit expectation more just a function of tough comps in the spot market from last year? Or how should we think about in that mid-single digit number in the back half, the difference between local and national account pricing for the next six months?

Larry Silber

Analyst

Yes, look, the national account pricing has been performing very well. And we’ve been able to – it’s better than perhaps what we even expected at that level. And I think that’s sort of driving it. The spot market has been better than expected, but we are going to have tougher comps in the back half on the spot market. And I think that’s sort of driving the guide towards mid-single digit rates for the back half of the year.

Ken Newman

Analyst

Got it. Makes sense. And then for my next question, I know there has been a lot of questions already on just some of the visibility from the mega projects here. Maybe just looking at the infrastructure side specifically, I think it seems like there we’re seeing a bit more acceleration in that – in those starts tied to federal funding. Just any color or commentary on what you’re seeing there in terms of accelerating activity and just your expectations for that specific market going into the back half?

Larry Silber

Analyst

Yes, the way I would describe the cadence of these was we saw the EV projects really were the first out, whether it’s battery or car manufacturing. Those were the first mega projects out. And those are going pretty strongly right now. The next ones we saw right behind that was the chip activity. Those projects broke around and they’re going strong. The infrastructure was, I would say, one of the last ones to kind of arrive and kind of show its true self and it’s just slowly starting to come online right now. I think that’s going to be a long tail. And that’s where we’ve invested some of our fleet mix to capitalize on that infrastructure really is the last piece of this mega kind of topic to come online.

Ken Newman

Analyst

Yes. Maybe we could squeeze one more in. On the SG&A, any thoughts or color on how we think about SG&A leverage into the back half of this year? Obviously, we’ve got a couple of moving pieces here on mixed headwinds, maybe some better absorption on higher fleet deliveries. But how should we think about sequentially from 2Q to 3Q and then 3Q to 4Q SG&A margins going forward?

Larry Silber

Analyst

Yes, I mean, we had some success there in Q2. We gained leverage, sort of 80 bps at the DOE line and about 20 bps at the SG&A line. And I think you’ll continue to see that operational leverage come through in the back half of the year, which is sort of part and parcel to the flow through guide aspect of this as well.

Ken Newman

Analyst

Got it. Thanks for the time.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Thank you.

Mark Humphrey

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Next we’ll go to John Healy at Northcoast Research.

John Healy

Analyst

Thank you. Just one question from me. I just wanted to get your thoughts, Larry on, we talked about mega projects a bunch today. But how that revenue potential may impact metrics of the business and how we look at it? Any thoughts on the type of accretion or headwind that it could be to incremental margins? Or do you offset that with a better utilization and does this type of revenue optically skew pricing and how that might be reported next year? So just, any sort of thoughts and just in terms of how this revenue mix might layer into to what you have? So maybe we can understand how the metrics may kind of evolve next year or the year after.

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

John, this is Aaron. I’ll take that one. We view the mega opportunity and the fleet that goes in there is very positive for our business. Two points. One, the fleet stays on rent for a long time, which means that you’ve got recurring revenues and you don’t have to transport it in and out of the project, and a lot of fleet mix goes into these big projects. So you have an opportunity to kind of yield up on the pricing equation. You got some core fleet in there. You get some specialty fleet supporting the customer and the project. So overall, it’s a very good story for our overall revenue line.

John Healy

Analyst

Great. Thank you.

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

We’ll go next to Steven Ramsey at Thompson Research Group.

Steven Ramsey

Analyst

Hi, good morning.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Hey, good morning, Steve.

Steven Ramsey

Analyst

Good morning. Yes. With national accounts growing faster than local in the first two quarters of this year, can you share how much of the national account growth reflects mega projects? How much of it reflects other project activity and how much local participates in mega projects if at all?

Larry Silber

Analyst

These mega projects affect our national business and our local business, which is great for our business overall. The national story is really just a function of us developing more relationships and penetrating some of the largest contractors in North America to a higher degree. Some of them are participating in mega projects, others are doing normal projects, but our relationships are building with those national accounts and that in order does kind of rain down to a large degree on our local branches. And the subcontractors that operate in these markets where there are mega projects are really benefiting as well. And those are customers of ourselves, the industry as well. So it’s all very positive economic impact, I would say from a mega point of view. And just quite honestly, I think, we’re doing a good job on the national front developing these relationships with these large contractors.

Steven Ramsey

Analyst

Okay. Helpful. And do you expect then over the next couple of years that national and local become more of an equal mix of rental revenue as mega projects ramp up or maybe that’s topic for the Investor Day?

Larry Silber

Analyst

Well, optimally, we like it to be about 60% local, 40% national that’s going to move through different quarters of the business. And over time, I think that’s where we’re going to settle in that level because we’re focused on growing our local business with our fleet diversity, our urban market strategy as well as our national account strategies.

Steven Ramsey

Analyst

Helpful. Thank you.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

We’ll take our final question from Brian Sponheimer at Gabelli Funds.

Brian Sponheimer

Analyst

Hi, good morning, everyone.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Good morning, Brian.

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

Good morning.

Mark Humphrey

Analyst

Good morning.

Brian Sponheimer

Analyst

Just curious, given all the good that you all see from end markets, what the M&A environment is shaping up, like whether there are anything that’s beyond the – maybe the one or two yard acquisitions that might be out there that might be a little bit chunkier for you? And what that pipeline looks like?

Larry Silber

Analyst

Well, look, overall, the pipeline still remains pretty healthy. We have a fair amount of activity that continues to be ongoing. There’s a – there may be some one or two out there that provide more than one or two. We just closed on one a couple of weeks ago in the third quarter. But look, there’s not a lot of big things left out there unless of something you want to send my way. But there’s not a lot of what I would call big ones that are either on the market or coming on the market. I think this is more, one, two, maybe three branch operations over the next several quarters for us.

Brian Sponheimer

Analyst

Okay. Understood. Thank you very much.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Get wind of something, let me know, all right.

Brian Sponheimer

Analyst

I certainly will.

Operator

Operator

And that does conclude the question-and-answer session. At this time, I would like to turn the conference back over to Leslie for any closing remarks.

Leslie Hunziker

Analyst

Thank you for joining us on the call today. We look forward to updating you on our progress in the quarters to come. Of course, if you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Have a great day.

Operator

Operator

And this concludes today’s conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.