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Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (HTZ)

Q3 2009 Earnings Call· Fri, Oct 30, 2009

$5.70

+1.88%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the Hertz Global Holdings 2009 Third Quarter conference call. The company has asked me to remind you that certain statements made on this call contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance and by their nature are subject to inherent uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially. Any forward-looking information relayed on this call speaks only as of the date and the company undertakes no obligation to update that information to reflect changed circumstances. Additional information concerning these statements is contained in the company's press release regarding its third quarter results issued yesterday and in the risk factors in forward-looking statement section of the company's 2008 Form 10-K and second quarter 2009 Form 10-Q. Copies of this filing are available from the SEC, from the Hertz website or the company's Investor Relations Department. I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Leslie Hunziker.

Leslie Hunziker

Management

Welcome to Hertz Global Holdings 2009 Third Quarter conference call. You should all have our press release and associated financial information. We've also provided slides to accompany our conference call which can be accessed on our website at www.hertz.com/investorrelations. In a minute I'll turn the call over to Mark Frissora, Hertz's Chairman and CEO. Also speaking today is Elyse Douglas our Chief Financial Officer. In addition, we have Joe Nothwang Executive Vice President and President of Vehicle Rental and Leasing the Americas and Pacific, Michel Taride Executive Vice President and President Hertz Europe Limited and Gerry Plescia, Executive Vice President and President of the Hertz Equipment Rental. They'll be on hand for the Q&A session. Today we'll use certain non-GAAP financial measures all of which are reconciled with GAAP numbers in our press release and at the back of the slide presentation both of which are posted on our website. We believe that our profitability and performance is better demonstrated using these non-GAAP metrics. Our call today focuses on Hertz Global Holdings Inc. a publicly traded company. Results for the Hertz Corporation differed only slightly as explained in our press release. Now I'll turn the call over to Mark Frissora.

Mark Frissora

Management

Hertz's employees did a great job delivering strong third quarter results in what remains a challenging economic environment. Our success was driven by an optimized business mix, improved utilization, reduced expenses and lower fleet costs. Our financing performance has been equally strong. As you know with our recent ABS transaction we've essentially completed our U.S. refinancing objective one year ahead of maturities. Since May we've raised $4.3 billion in three very successful financing where pricing came in much better than originally anticipated, and just this week S&P put us on positive outlook. Elyse will give you the details, but I wanted to let you know that we've said that this could get this refinancing done all along. We knew we could and my team has not only delivered on their word but they've exceeded my expectations. Our operating performance has also exceeded expectations. As you know, the third quarter is always an important one in the rental car industry as travel demand peaks during the summer months. As always we executed for growth and profitability and we were rewarded. On slide seven our worldwide rental car adjusted pre-tax margin was up 630 basis points over last year to 14.7% as a result of fleet and labor efficiencies, better administrative productivity and the closing or consolidating of underperforming locations. Remarkably, this is only 50 basis points lower than the pre-recession 2007 third quarter adjusted pre-tax margin. We're definitely closing the gap on pre-recession profitability and worldwide rent-a-car. More specifically, the biggest driver of the improvement was U.S. Rent-a-car which is benefiting from both better than expected leisure demand and discipline cost management. To think that US adjusted pre-tax margins have rebounded 800 basis points from a year ago is remarkable especially given the 9.2% decrease in revenue. This result clearly shows…

Elyse Douglas - Chief Financial Officer

Management

Before I get to the numbers, I want to review the actions taken on our re-financing initiatives on slide 14. We've been very active of late, as I'm sure you've seen. On our last call, we discussed our expectations of closing on the U.S. conduit refinancing and the possible ABS term note issuance in the fourth quarter. I'm pleased to report we closed on the conduit facility in September and the $2.14 billion raised exceeded our target. And based on very favorable market conditions two weeks ago, we were able to close an ABS term note transaction and now have essentially completed the refinancing of the U.S. fleet debt maturities earlier than we expected. We raised $1.2 billion in ABS notes that were Triple A rated by Moody. The transaction consists of $500 million in three-year notes and $700 million in five-year notes, at fixed coupons of 4.26% and 5.29% respectively. Our initial intention was to raise $500 million to $600 million in three-year financing, but the deal was significantly oversubscribed. This allowed us to up-size the transaction, get term extension and, at the same time achieve very favorable pricing. The blended annual interest cost on the notes is 4.91% as shown on slide 15. The fact that this yield was actually below the cost of the notes that were issued in December 2005 by 49 basis points helped in our decision to increase the amount of financing raised. So let me summarize the accomplishments made over the last six months on the re-financing front. In May we issued equity and convertible debt to preserve our corporate liquidity in light of the need for greater credit enhancement on ABS financing. The $990 million raised sufficiently addresses the corporate financing requirement of changes in the advance rates. The advance rates achieved…

Mark P. Frissora

Management

Let's move to slide 26 if we can. We built strong momentum during the past nine months in a very tough economy and we're taking what has worked for us and working hard at doing it even better. Everyone at Hertz is fully aware of the macro challenges the industry is facing and we know the importance of staying focused on our strategies. We're aggressively pursuing new profitable business while at the same time being very proactive in reducing costs. In U.S. rent-a-car, volumes are turning positive year-over-year as the comps get easier and demand maintains its upward trend. As I mentioned, even commercial account volumes were better in the third quarter than the second quarter and the pace of decline in October is much better than what it was in September. To give you a feel for that, just a quick statistic, 45% of our top 20 accounts in the U.S. are flat to up year-over-year in the month of October. That's a significant improvement, so that's on the top 20 accounts. The other thing that's going on in U.S. rent-a-car is pricing is strengthening every day. Pricing in October, we expect probably to be up at least 3.5 points even on an RPD basis, which is really not pricing. But we expect that even to be up and therefore even up more significantly on a pure price basis. So again, pricing has been holding up and appears that it will hold through November/December. Of course, that could change with any lessening of demand as you might expect because then we will become over fleeted and pricing is at risk, but in general, we feel pricing will be strong for the fourth quarter in U.S. rent-a-car. Monthly depreciation per vehicle in the U.S. continues to decline as we sell…

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions). Our first question comes from Richard Kwas – Wells Fargo Securities. Richard Kwas – Wells Fargo Securities: Mark, on that slide 13 regarding U.S. rack average weekly pricing. I thought that was a very good slide. A question about did you look forward here? You're coming off a higher base relative to your competitors and that's part of the reason you have not increased pricing as much as maybe some of the others. Going forward, as we think about a recovery, economic recovery, shouldn't that mean that you should be able to raise prices when things get better?

Mark P. Frissora

Management

That's correct. Richard Kwas – Wells Fargo Securities: Okay. So you –

Mark P. Frissora

Management

That's exactly right. So our downside right now becomes an upside as revenues start to increase year-over-year. You're exactly right on the money. This is the big opportunity for us. Richard Kwas – Wells Fargo Securities: Okay, so then –

Mark P. Frissora

Management

And you're going to see that. That's why I talked to you about even in the fourth quarter as we got to flat to up revenues, I mentioned to you October pricing, even on an ROPD basis was going to be up. So you're reading that exactly right, Rich. Richard Kwas – Wells Fargo Securities: So in a recovery scenario, you're going to have more price and power relative to your competitors in your view.

Mark P. Frissora

Management

Absolutely. Richard Kwas – Wells Fargo Securities: Manheim Index, I know that you've been using some other outlets in terms of disposing vehicles and that's been helpful to you. How should we think about with Manheim Index kind of at a peak here, potentially near peak, if we see some retrenchment there, how are you thinking about how that's going to affect depreciation rates?

Mark P. Frissora

Management

Well, we believe next year depreciation rates will be down year-over-year probably in the neighborhood – our actual fleet cost, I shouldn't say depreciation rates. I don't want to forecast that, but we've talked about our fleet costs being down at least 2% to 4% next year in that range. So we know that. And then in terms of residual values, we continue to think that residual values in the U.S. anyway will continue to be strong and expect total stability there. We have no expectation that demand for used cars at both dealers lots, those inventory levels will continue to be fairly low and tight. So we don't see any – we see really a tight supply demand curve right now. Richard Kwas – Wells Fargo Securities: Then regarding, I guess a lease, regarding that depreciation comment regarding per vehicle per month a pretty big stair step down here sequentially. Do we think of that getting better sequentially speaking over the next several quarters or is that comment year on a year-over-year basis?

Elyse Douglas

Analyst

No, that percentage is going to continue to get better quarter-over-quarter. Richard Kwas – Wells Fargo Securities: And that will continue with the foreseeable future in your view.

Elyse Douglas

Analyst

Yes. Richard Kwas – Wells Fargo Securities: Mark, on Europe sounds like you made some headway there on restructuring but there's more to go. Where are you in kind of getting the cost out of the business there and how should we be thinking about that going forward?

Mark Frissora

Management

We have to finish our restructuring there which will occur over the next six months. So we're not completed. We are in the middle of it right now and we got a good chunk of it done in the third quarter. So there was a lot done there but we still have more to go. I guess the completion of it will be by, like I said, all done within six months the bulk of it probably in the next four. Michel Taride is on the phone. I don't know, Michel, can you add any color to that?

Michel Taride

Analyst

This restructuring in Europe we used about $35 million of saving, which completed about 3/4 of it already. As Mark mentioned, we just have consultation of obligation in Europe. In a couple of countries they take a bit more time. But I will tell you in Q3 total employee productivity, which is the calculation of transactions divided by the number of employees, increased by 10.3%. so it shows that we are well ahead of the curve already and it takes time because it's a different structure, which not only will be lower cost for us, but we will improve significantly our effectiveness because we're just going to be organized very differently.

Mark Frissora

Management

I guess to add to your question, Rich, cost takeout we aren't nearly through. I mean we still have a lot that will play out through 2010 and that's across the board on all business, right, whether it's equipment rental or Europe as well as North America in rent-a-car. So we have a lot more to go that has not been realized yet and we upped our forecast. We'll probably beat that and then on top of that a lot of this bleeds over into 2010. so a lot of these programs that we're on has sustainability and have more legs to them in the 2010 year. Richard Kwas – Wells Fargo Securities: Final on HERC, yesterday talked about pricing pressure continuing. They're not expecting year-over-year increases in revenue until 2011. you talked about demand bottoming but pricing still under pressure. How do we think about that the next several quarters with pricing under pressure, demand at a pretty low level but not getting any worse. I mean it sounds like we should expect that revenues are going to be down at least for the first half of 2010.

Mark Frissora

Management

I think revenues certainly may be in the first quarter will be down. I mean second quarter we have flattish type of sales. It depends on what model you want to look at. We certainly think revenues will be up year-over-year probably for HERC overall. That's kind of our current forecasting model based on everything we know. Now this is a market that no one really has a crystal ball on, but even in our conservative crystal ball, we kind of looked at revenues net-net next year for the full year would actually be up year-over-year.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from John Healy – Northcoast Research. John Healy – Northcoast Research: Mark, I was hoping you could talk a little bit about the Advantage brand and the strategy with the brand. Maybe kind of give us some insight into how big that business is in terms of revenue this year and maybe what you see as a realistic incremental revenue opportunity in 2010 and maybe a little bit of color on how you're managing the business today from a positioning standpoint compared to maybe how the previous owner managed that business

Mark Frissora

Management

The Advantage brand seems to have again a lot of legs on it. When we turn it on we get 20% to 25% market share through third party online sources. As I mentioned, we're going to have 50 airports open pretty quickly here. And the run rate has been in the neighborhood of $80 million to $100 million at the current run rate. We think that's tremendous upside with the new locations, etc. this business was $250 million business on an annualizes basis before we bought it and it started winding down a year before we bought it. But the run rate was actually about a $250 million business. Now that was with all their locations. We really only bought the rights to about 22 locations but we bought the entire brand name and we're opening up past 22 locations, obviously. We're opening up to at least 50 next year. So we see this as a way for us to protect our market share on airport. I mean this is one of the key strategies for us. Obviously, we didn't want to comprise the Hertz Classic brand by going at the pricing levels necessary to protect share with someone like a Dollar Thrifty or an Enterprise or Budget or low end. Everyone else has a Budget brand, Hertz did not. So you need to remember that. We were the first – we just bought a Budget brand but everyone already has one. So just really we're complementing our portfolio with having a Budget brand. So we expect to get our fair share of that, just like everyone else has gotten their fair share we're going to get our fair share too, John. So what is our fair share? I mean we would be hopeful that in that budget segment we…

Mark Frissora

Management

I think so because what we're seeing is the pricing in commercial is now flattish to starting to show up year-over-year because the comps become easier. There was a lot of pressure on our commercial contract. That pressure is still always there but the pricing levels, I think, have hit the bottom. And we should start seeing some improvement as, again, commercial demand improves. And as that demand approves and that pricing gets better year-over-year, then the benefits from operating leverage accrue to the contribution per day and, yes, we would get a higher contribution per day accordingly. John Healy – Northcoast Research: Last question, can you talk a little bit about internationally with vehicle values there. Should we anticipate maybe that to become somewhat of a tailwind for you guys next year if we begin to see some stability there or is it just too hard to try to determine what will happen with fleet costs intentionally next year?

Mark Frissora

Management

European fleet costs will be down year-over-year next year. So we're using the same fleet tactics we implemented and pioneered in the U.S. in Europe and this is the first go around of negotiations, which we finalized in the first quarter. But you should know that historically since I've been with the company our fleet cost has gone up every year. It could be 8% to 10% and Michel and his team and [John Thomas], who is our head of fleet globally, we've worked it really hard and our fleet costs in Europe we believe will be down year-over-year next year. John Healy – Northcoast Research: So that will actually provide momentum, right, not earnings drag?

Michel Taride

Analyst

We also have that for the last nine months our residual values have stabilized. They took a pretty significant drop last year. They have stabilized. The U.K. market actually has improved significantly despite a scraping campaign here and we are hopefully as this scraping campaign phase out next year our residual values will improve which will help to further lower our fleet costs here in Europe. John Healy – Northcoast Research: Mark, you're looking to 2009, the year is exiting a lot different than it started out and you guys and your peers have made great progress. Looking into next year, pricing and transactions hopefully improving, you see the benefit of residual values see the benefit of improved cost structure. As you and your team look to next year what's the worry? What are the one or two issues that you guys are really focusing on that could make or break next year that we should be aware of?

Mark P. Frissora

Management

I guess fleet we think will be down. Pricing should be kind of flattish to up. It depends on how tight everyone keeps their fleets. I guess the only thing that could hurt us would be another weakening in the economy, which would hurt our volume. I mean we tie – on the rent-a-car side we tie pretty closely to the GDP. I think everyone believes that the U.S. and Europe's GDP will actually improve year-over-year, so if that holds true, even if it's a 1% improvement that gives us cause for optimism. On the equipment rental side, we think the stimulus package should start to kick in. It hasn't so far, to our business model but we believe it will next year. We also have switched a lot of our inventory into industrial markets, which are improving certainly more rapidly than non-res construction. So as I look at next year it's hard for me to sit there and say I've got a big downer that's going to kill us. Of course, I can't predict the economy and is it going to be U-shaped? Is it going B? I mean what's it going to look like? You know that as well as I can. But that's my biggest worry is – but in general I think we're positioned well to capitalize on any uptick in volume.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Emily Shanks – Barclays Capital. Emily Shanks – Barclays Capital: As we look at fiscal year 2010 fleet costs, thank you for the data and the affirmation, Mark, of the 2% to 4% decline. Specifically around quantity of fleet, how should we think about it on a year-over-year basis, that you will be purchasing?

Mark P. Frissora

Management

I would say that fleet, based on the way we're looking at it right now and of course that changes. I mean, we change our fleet buys every week. It could change, but we think we'll probably be up 5% on fleet next year, if I give you a rough estimate, in the U.S. In Europe, Michel, what do you anticipate fleet being, in terms of total fleet next year?

Michel Taride

Analyst

In terms of cost Mark?

Mark P. Frissora

Management

No, no, no, fleet size. I think –

Michel Taride

Analyst

Yes, it should be up in the region of 6% to 7%.

Mark P. Frissora

Management

So 6%, so you see the range, Emily, 5% to 7% is kind of as we see it right now. Emily Shanks – Barclays Capital: And then I have a question for Elyse around potential OEM financing. You guys don't have any OEM financing agreements in place right now; do you?

Elyse Douglas

Analyst

We have a few. We have a few lease deals with some OEMs. Emily Shanks – Barclays Capital: And how do you look at that versus doing say another non [inaudible] ABS deal? How do you weigh the two?

Elyse Douglas

Analyst

We view it as opportunistic. We have had some conversations also with the OEMs about participating in an ABS so that could be another form of OEM financing as being potentially an investor in a deal.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Jordan Hymowitz – Philadelphia Financial. Jordan Hymowitz – Philadelphia Financial: The depreciation amount, you said there were no gains in the quarter, but your depreciation was much less than the decline in the actual vehicle fleet year-over-year. Should I increase the depreciation amount, correct, or the residuals value amount even if it wasn't sold?

Elyse Douglas

Analyst

We have a policy whereby we look at that every quarter and we adjust the depreciation rates based on the residual values, yes. What we did say, though, Jordan was we did say we took gains of $2 million in the quarter.

Mark P. Frissora

Management

Two million dollars, which is much lower than you'll probably see out of some competitors.

Elyse Douglas

Analyst

Worldwide.

Mark P. Frissora

Management

And that's a worldwide number. Jordan Hymowitz – Philadelphia Financial: Could you comment then like AutoNation, Group 1, Lithia and Capital One have all commented on weaknesses in the used car market in the past month that should be reflected in the October data? You're saying it's staying pretty strong, and Lithia actually said that the used car sales have been particularly weak. Are you just not seeing that at all or are they wrong or?

Mark P. Frissora

Management

We only sell cars that are one to two years in age, so there's a whole other market for used cars where they're older, dirtier and a lot more aged, so you really need to talk specifically about the cars that we sell. And in our market, we've had normal seasonal adjustments for used cars pricing. So every year in the used car market, for the last 40 years, residuals drop in October because rental car companies de-fleet after the summer season. It happened last year and the 39 years behind that. So, yes, residuals drop but not any more than what they would normally do seasonally. Does that make sense? Jordan Hymowitz – Philadelphia Financial: Completely, I didn't realize that magnitude. So what you're saying then is that each quarter you're going to seasonally adjust the residual value changes and factor in the depreciation, but because you're buying less expensive cars the absolute number to start with should be lower?

Elyse Douglas

Analyst

I don't think we're saying that.

Mark P. Frissora

Management

No, I didn't say that, no.

Elyse Douglas

Analyst

We do adjust every quarter the depreciation rates. And as we mentioned earlier in the call, the low point for residuals was in December and residuals have improved. And so from when we saw that low point, we adjusted the depreciation rates up and, then as residuals get better, we adjust the depreciation rates down. So when you look at car costs, you really have to look at them over an extended period of time. But that's one element to car costs. The other element is how effectively we buy and we're actually buying cars at better rates. So the 2009 model year cars are at better rates – better cap costs than what we bought in '08 and '10 should be better as well. And then fleet mix also has an impact as well, but the fleet mix hasn't been changed materially year-over-year. Jordan Hymowitz – Philadelphia Financial: So basically your cap costs are coming down, so even if the depreciation was the same or the residual value was the same there should be less depreciation you're saying?

Elyse Douglas

Analyst

That's true. That's an element as well, yes. Jordan Hymowitz – Philadelphia Financial: And then the other factor is where the Manheim trends, and you're saying you track the Manheim closely or don't? Because it seems like your depreciation policy seems to be in line with where that index trends.

Elyse Douglas

Analyst

And we probably rely more heavily on our own experience, so we look at our actual gains and losses on car sales and that becomes a guiding principle as well. Jordan Hymowitz – Philadelphia Financial: And you did actually realize much less gains than the other car companies that have reported so far?

Elyse Douglas

Analyst

Yes, and again that's a worldwide number.

Mark P. Frissora

Management

That's correct.

Elyse Douglas

Analyst

We did have losses in Europe as well, but that's correct.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Chris Doherty – Oppenheimer & Co. Chris Doherty – Oppenheimer & Co.: Elyse, just a question in terms of the timing on fleet sales, because one of, I think, the challenges of modeling you guys from a capital standpoint is the fluctuation in the fleet. When do you tend to de-fleet post the summer season? Is that sort of within the Q3 period or does it tend to be at the beginning of Q4 in October?

Elyse Douglas

Analyst

It starts in September I would say the heavy de-fleeting from the summer peak. But you have to keep in mind that we kind of have a normal rotation so that every month we rotate cars in and out of the fleet. But the de-fleeting from the summer months really begins in September and throughout the fourth quarter. Now we have a choice between de-fleeting program and risk cars and so we have a mix of both as part of that exercise. Chris Doherty – Oppenheimer & Co.: And then when you – sort of the reciprocal side of that is when you start to pick up the fleet for the summer period, is that late Q2 or is it earlier than that?

Elyse Douglas

Analyst

It can be – literally, we'll start buying 2010 model year cars even in the fourth quarter of this year, so it's really when can we buy efficiently and when can we dispose of efficiently. But you will see the fleet actually build from the second quarter to the third quarter. That's really where the summer peak is.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Michael Millman – Millman Research Associates. Michael Millman – Millman Research Associates: Getting back to an earlier question and kind of wondering that if, in fact, you had held your spread between Enterprise – I think it got reduced by $24. It seems intuitively that you would have done better than by cutting that and had more volume. Maybe you can give us a little more color or statistics to help us through that?

Mark P. Frissora

Management

We studied, like I said you might imagine every day pricing and we've got a very large pricing staff here. We look at pricing by the hour or by the half hour. And we canvas and we gauge competitor reactions combined with what our volume in rental days are, a field management program called CMS. What we find that is if we expanded it by what you just said we would lose business, right? So and that we make real contribution dollars, incremental dollars by actually pricing with the methodology we use. So we're not doing this in anything else than a very highly scientific way with very, very smart brilliant people actually doing it. Then we talk about it as a team every week, the senior operating committee that we work on. So I can't probably explain to you on the call, you know, give you all the science because some of its confidential and actually some of it has to do with what we think is our intellectual property here and how we price. But we feel confident in showing you that our net profit per day was hugely successful and probably beat all competitors. And that's where it all comes home. Mix volume price as well as expense control associated with the fleet. That's all wrapped into that. You know that profit, that pretax profit per day, per rental day. So I think that's where you got to look to see where we're optimizing price. If we try to go down the rabbit hole on any other discussion, then it's crazy. That's why we try to put those slides together actually with – I know the pricing is a very complicated subject in rental car. And we have a very complex fleet. We have a lot of…

Mark P. Frissora

Management

No, they don't because they don't have the complexity we do. Avis Budget probably the most closely models our complexity but the difference between the other rental companies we think strategically right now may be the fact that we're very balanced. We're not yielding up. We're not reducing the size of our fleet to get higher pricing. Now again, we could do that but that's not sustainable, it's good short-term strategy. And I'm not saying our competitors would do it but if you look at our transaction [day] growth, it's pretty decent. It's a lot of less than, let's just say, some of our competitors because we're trying to drive contribution market incrementally. Our objective is to grow profits overall so we're happy to take all contributing profits and that's the kind of the philosophy. That's why we put together pages we were hoping that it would – most people could understand it by looking at those pages 11, 12, and 13 and what I said about those pages. I think the evidence is obviously that we're doing a pretty good job on price. RPD is not price as you know. It is just not price. RPD is merely a function of whatever your fleet classes look like. If you had a higher class of fleet, yours RP is going to be higher. That's why the chart shows that our pricing is still very high. We're at the highest in [MBM] still. Michael Millman – Millman Research Associates: Yes, we'd still like to see more transparency on some of the different silos so that we can understand some of this complexity or maybe work with some of this complexity. What – I guess – beating a dead horse here a bit. Most of the companies do use some sort of yield management. Why wouldn't they come to some of the same conclusions or why do they come to vastly different conclusions that it behooves them to keep their prices up and their fleets down. And to what extent, if they did – had a model similar to yours that your model would be affected by that?

Mark P. Frissora

Management

Well, first of all, if you go to some other industries, like if you want to compare Starbucks to Dunkin' Donuts, you'll find that all top end companies have fallen more than their peers on pricing. That's just the way any high end brand falls. This is not unique to rental land. You can go anywhere and see this, okay. So that's just what happens on the math. That's why I tried to show you, again, on the page that was indicated, right, so Budget has Budget. It has part of Avis, right. So that contributes to RPD help for them. We don't have with Advantage as big of a brand as Avis Budget has with Budget. Obviously Dollar's 50 has – is a budget brand, I mean it's a leisure brand. And so that has lower price characteristics to it, right? So again what other company's strategies are. You can talk to them about it but I guess we're very happy with our strategy and we feel it's been very successful and at the end of the day it shows up in pre-tax profit per unit. And that's what you need to look at. Michael Millman – Millman Research Associates: Just a clarification, on the October prices, that 3.5%, that was compared with September – maybe what was that compared with?

Mark P. Frissora

Management

Year-over-year. That was a year-over-year comparison. Michael Millman – Millman Research Associates: Again, other companies are talking about double digit year-over-year price in October.

Mark P. Frissora

Management

Yes but they're contracting, right. I mean one of the issues, Michael is as the business starts to expand and Rich Kwas talked about it but that as the business starts to expand then we have a lot of operating leverage on pricing going forward. The reverse starts to happen. When you're a high priced brand, when it goes down, plus your – we're chasing mix and volume on RPD business that's lower RPD. I mean I don't – you understand that on page 12, that we're getting higher contribution per day on lower RPD business. That's a higher percent of our mix. You understand that, right? Now look at page 12 on the slides and you need to look at the math on that and that should put to rest what your concerns are. Michael Millman – Millman Research Associates: I will study that some more. Thank you.

Mark P. Frissora

Management

Those are real numbers. I mean it just happened. Those are real numbers. We tried to put that slide together to make it clear and we gave you move transparency on page 12 than we've ever given before and 11. So 11 and 12 and 13 are incredibly transparent. We actually give you real data and we made it simple so that everyone could really understand it so I've got to go no. Next question?

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Emily Shanks – Barclays. Please go ahead. Emily Shanks – Barclays Capital: Around the equipment rental market, are you guys still expecting consolidation and then, Mark, I was hoping you could give us a little color around how you think about HERC as you relate it to part of the Hertz business on a longer term go-forward basis, please?

Mark P. Frissora

Management

In terms of HERC I mean they're part of the Hertz family and there's no discussions about you know doing anything other than but keeping them part of the Hertz family. So if that's your question. If we ever think that there could be shareholder value creation doing anything with any of our businesses whether it's HERC or whether it's Rent-a-Car. It could be Europe or U.S. We would do it to unbundle value but having said that, no plans here. What was the first part of your question? Was that your question on HERC? Emily Shanks – Barclays Capital: Just around consolidation I know the last time we spoke, I think the view was that there would be continued consolidation within the equipment rental industry. And I just want to see if that was still your view?

Mark P. Frissora

Management

I think that both in the rent-a-car and the equipment rental industry that over the next several years there will be consolidation in both of those businesses. And so I think it would surprise me over the next 24 months if something didn't happen in both of those industries, something that would be – competitors and we all know about.

Operator

Operator

And we have no further questions in queue.

Mark P. Frissora

Management

We really appreciate you attending the conference call with us and look forward to talking and sharing our results in the fourth quarter.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude our conference for today. We'd like to thank you for your participation and for using AT&T Executive Teleconference. You may now disconnect.