Hertz Equipment Rental Corp. Posts 7-Percent Q4 Rental Revenue Decline

Hertz Equipment Rental posted $386 million in fourth quarter worldwide equipment rental revenue, the company said, compared to $416 million in the fourth quarter of 2014, a 7-percent decrease.

Michael Roth

March 2, 2016

2 min read

Soft demand in the upstream oilandgas sector is the primary cause of HERC39s yearoveryear revenue decrease — Soft demand in the upstream oil-and-gas sector is the primary cause of HERC's year-over-year revenue decrease.

Hertz Equipment Rental posted $386 million in fourth quarter worldwide equipment rental revenue, the company said, compared to $416 million in the fourth quarter of 2014, a 7-percent decrease. Excluding the unfavorable foreign currency impact of $10 million, revenue decreased 5 percent, driven by continued pressure in upstream oil and gas-related markets and the Oct. 30, 2015 sale of Hertz Equipment Rental operations in France and Spain.

Adjusted corporate EBITDA for the worldwide equipment rental segment for the fourth quarter was $166 million, a $12 million decline compared to the fourth quarter of 2014.

HERC continued to diversify its business, achieving a 42-percent increase in revenue from new accounts in North America on a constant currency basis in the fourth quarter. Also Hertz Global Holdings continues to expect that the planned separation of HERC as a public company is on track for mid-2016.

For the full year 2015, HERC posted $1.518 billion in the world wide equipment rental segment compared to $1.571 million in 2014, a 3.4-percent decrease.

For the full year 2016, Worldwide Equipment Rental segment preliminary 2016 adjusted corporate EBITDA guidance has been revised from a range of $625 million to $675 million to a range of $600 million to $650 million, because of expected continued pressure in the upstream oil-and-gas business.

HERC announced last week at The Rental Show its plans to change its name to Herc Rentals.

Based in Estero, Fla., Hertz Equipment Rental Corp. is No. 3 on the RER 100.

About the Author

Michael Roth

Editor

Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.