Budget Group Reports Earnings of $.17 Per Share for 4th Quarter Exceeding Consensus Analysts' Estimates of $.16 Per Share and Reports $1.60 Per Share for the Year.DAYTONA BEACH Daytona Beach (dātō`nə), city (1990 pop. 61,921), Volusia co., NE Fla., on the Atlantic coast and Halifax River (a lagoon); inc. 1876. Center of a rapidly urbanizing area, in a region settled by Spanish Franciscans in the 17th cent. , Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 24, 1998--Budget Group, Inc. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :BD) released its fourth quarter results today, reporting diluted earnings per share diluted earnings per share An earnings measure calculated by dividing net income less preferred stock dividends for a period by the average number of shares of common stock that would be outstanding if all convertible securities were converted into shares of of 17 cents for the quarter ended December 31, 1997, compared to a loss of 33 cents a year ago. Net income for the fourth quarter increased to $4.5 million compared to a loss of $3.7 million in the prior year's quarter. Fourth quarter revenues increased to $412.5 million from $96.4 million. Operating income Operating Income The profit realized from a business' own operations. Notes: This would not include income from things such as investments in other firms. Also referred to as operating profit or recurring profit. increased to $43.4 million from $2.0 million. The magnitude of the increases was due primarily to the acquisition of Budget Rent a Car Corporation (BRAC Brač (bräch), Ital. Brazza, island (1991 pop. 13,824), 152 sq mi (394 sq km), off the Dalmatian coast in the Adriatic Sea, Croatia. It is a popular summer resort and tourist spot. Supetar (Ital. ) on April 29, 1997. Diluted earnings per share for the year ended December 31, 1997, were $1.60, ahead of consensus estimates of $1.56. Net income for the year ended December 31, 1997, increased to $36.9 million compared to $4.5 million in 1996. Annual revenues increased to $1,303.8 million from $357.4 million and operating income increased to $171.3 million from $35.3 million. The operating results herein for the fourth quarter represent three full months of combined operations For the department of the British War Office during World War II, see . In the military, combined operations are operations conducted by forces of two or more allied nations acting together for the accomplishment of a single mission. See also
"In 1997 we achieved the goals we set for ourselves and communicated to investors when we acquired Budget Rent a Car last April," stated Sandy Miller Sandy Lee Miller (nee Percival) is a journalist and news anchor from Missouri. Miller currently co-anchors weekdays for FOX 2 News at 6 p.m. She joined FOX 2 in October 2002. Before joining the FOX team, Sandy co-anchored the 9 p.m. news at KPLR-TV for 4 years. , Chairman and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Budget Group, Inc. "With improved pricing in the industry and better yield management, our U.S. car rental Daily Dollar Average (DDA DDA Disability Discrimination Act (1995, UK) DDA Downtown Development Authority DDA Doha Development Agenda DDA Delhi Development Authority DDA Department for Disarmament Affairs DDA Demand Deposit Account DDA Domain Defined Attribute ) for the quarter was up $2.22 or 5.8% over prior year quarter pro forma As a matter of form or for the sake of form. Used to describe accounting, financial, and other statements or conclusions based upon assumed or anticipated facts. The phrase pro forma , reaching $40.34," added Miller. U.S. rental days (volume) for the quarter increased 10% over the prior year quarter pro forma. Gross rental margin (revenue per unit less holding cost per unit) of 57.2% represents an increase of 380 basis points over the prior year quarter pro forma. During the quarter the company also closed on the purchase of franchise operations in St. Louis and Syracuse. Continuing its strategy to acquire key franchised markets for greater consistency of service and control, corporate-owned locations now account for over 80% of the U.S. Budget System. "We are right on strategy for our BRAC operations, reaching target improvements for revenue, gross margin and earnings. We continue to build momentum with our new fleet diversity brand campaign that launched in September, and the high-margin VIP Pickup Pickup A gain in yield made by selling one bond and buying another. Also referred to as "yield pickup." Notes: When the present yield is relatively low compared to the longer-term yields, pickups will be done by investors trying to increase the yield and duration of their program continues to drive incremental Additional or increased growth, bulk, quantity, number, or value; enlarged. Incremental cost is additional or increased cost of an item or service apart from its actual cost. revenue, reaching over $10 million since its introduction in September," said Miller. Over 26,000 travel agents have enrolled in Unlimited Budget, a breakthrough, Budget-branded Mastercard debit card debit card, card that allows the cost of goods or services that are purchased to be deducted directly from the purchaser's checking account. They can also be used at automated teller machines for withdrawing cash from the user's checking account. program that rewards travel agents who book Budget. While bookings are up overall from travel agents, closed transactions are up 54% at travel agencies where one or more agents are enrolled in Unlimited Budget. Nearly 60% of all Budget airport reservations are booked through travel agents. Contracted corporate revenue is up 14% and transactions are up 10% for the year, with most of the growth coming in the second half of the year. Following on the success of the third quarter, the Budget Truck Rental Budget Truck Rental, LLC is the second largest truck rental company in the continental United States of America with around 2,800 businesses and 32,000 trucks across the country. division experienced record growth in utilization, transactions, revenue and profits for the fourth quarter. Revenue of $34.3 million, up 20.9% over the prior year's quarter pro forma, was the highest of any fourth quarter in the history of Budget Truck Rental. Pre-tax profit rose 128%. Fourth quarter transactions increased 16.5% over prior year's fourth quarter, while rental days rose 22.9% and utilization improved 310 basis points. "We're seeing tremendous growth in local and one-way consumer truck rentals as a result of increased marketing efforts. We have launched our preferred vendor relationship with Cendant (formerly HFS (Hierarchical File System) The file system used in the Macintosh. The first version, known as "Mac OS Standard," was introduced in 1985. HFS+, an enhanced version, came out in 1998 in preparation for the upcoming Mac OS X operating system. and CUC CUC Cuban Convertible Peso (ISO currency code) CUC Columbia Union College (Takoma Park, MD, USA) CUC Canadian Unitarian Council CUC Canadian Ultimate Championships ), which now recommends Budget Rent a Truck to new home buyers through its realtors at Coldwell Banker, ERA and Century 21," stated Miller. Budget Car Sales revenue reached $67.4 million for the quarter, up $27.7 million from the same quarter last year. Annual car sales revenue totaled $240 million, an increase of 79% over prior year. Units sold under the Budget Car Sales banner totaled 3,715 for the quarter, a substantial increase from the prior year quarter's units sold of 2,432. Units sold for the year totaled 14,015 up 85.9% over prior year. The increase was due to the addition of the car sales operations of BRAC as well as the opening of new stores. The year ended with a total of 26 dealerships in operation. Jeff Congdon, president of Budget Car Sales, notes, "Unlike the auto super-store concept, our retail car sales strategy of operating smaller scale locations in secondary markets continues to be profitable." Revenues for the fourth quarter from Premier Car Rental reached $12.9 million. Premier was acquired on July 31, 1997 and prior period data does not exist. This is the first full quarter of operating results since acquiring Premier. Since the acquisition, Premier has opened 50 new locations, for a current total of 150 locations, and entered four new geographic markets. Van Pool Services' total revenue in 1997 was $34.9 million, an increase of 5.6% over 1996 levels. Two weeks ago, Van Pool Services closed on its acquisition of Vipre B.V., a transport management and vanpooling services company serving commuters in The Netherlands and Belgium. Van Pool Services acquired Vipre from Philips Electronics N.V. On January 28, 1998, the company closed on its acquisition of Cruise America Cruise America is a privately held recreational vehicle rental and sales company based in Mesa, Arizona. The company was founded in 1972 and was publicly traded in the American Stock Exchange under the ticker “RVR” until 1997. [1]. , Inc. Cruise America had revenues of $95.6 million and pretax income pretax income Reported income before the deduction of income taxes. Pretax income is sometimes considered a better measure of a firm's performance than aftertax income because taxes in one period may be influenced by activities in earlier periods. of $3.8 million for its fiscal year ended April 30, 1997. Cruise America operates 17 company-owned facilities and 74 satellite rental centers throughout North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. , with a fleet of more than 4,300 recreational vehicles. Cruise America's low cost, modular-unit fleet allows the company to refurbish re·fur·bish tr.v. re·fur·bished, re·fur·bish·ing, re·fur·bish·es To make clean, bright, or fresh again; renovate. re·fur the camper portion of its vehicles and remount re·mount tr.v. re·mount·ed, re·mount·ing, re·mounts 1. To mount again. 2. To supply with a fresh horse. n. A fresh horse. Noun 1. them on new truck chassis Pronounced "chah-see," it is a physical structure that holds everything or that everything is attached to. A computer's cabinet is often called the chassis. . The used truck chassis are converted at a nominal cost into delivery trucks and then sold at attractive prices into the large market for pre-owned trucks. Budget Group, Inc., through subsidiary companies and their franchisees, operates Budget Car and Truck Rental, the third largest worldwide car and truck rental system, with over 3,200 airport and local market locations in more than 110 countries and territories. In addition, the Company owns Premier Car Rental, which serves the insurance replacement market through a network of 150 locations in 17 major U.S. markets. Budget Car Sales is one of the largest independent retailers of late model vehicles in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , operating 26 retail car sales facilities. The company also operates airport parking facilities at certain locations and through Van Pool Services leases 3,500 vans for van pooling operations in 60 urban areas. Certain items in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements forward-looking statement A projected financial statement based on management expectations. A forward-looking statement involves risks with regard to the accuracy of assumptions underlying the projections. within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA) implemented several significant substantive changes affecting certain cases brought under the federal securities laws, including changes related to pleading, discovery, liability, class representation and awards fees and of 1995 and as such may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Budget to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. Budget expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in Budget's expectations with regard thereto there·to adv. 1. To that, this, or it. 2. Archaic In addition to that; furthermore. thereto Adverb Formal 1. to that or it 2. or any change in events, conditions or circumstances CIRCUMSTANCES, evidence. The particulars which accompany a fact. 2. The facts proved are either possible or impossible, ordinary and probable, or extraordinary and improbable, recent or ancient; they may have happened near us, or afar off; they are public or on which any statement is based. -0-
BUDGET GROUP INC.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME
Period Ending Dec. 31,
(In Thousands, Except Share Data)
Fourth Quarter Year to Date
1997 1996 1997 1996
OPERATING REVENUE
Vehicle Rental $328,214 $56,719 $1,014,105 $223,250
Sales of vehicles 67,369 39,631 239,992 134,120
Royalty fees and other 16,963 0 49,665 0
Total operating revenues 412,546 96,350 1,303,762 357,370
OPERATING COSTS AND EXPENSES
Direct vehicle and operating 47,470 10,706 128,408 35,098
Depreciation -- vehicles 90,653 16,752 278,495 60,735
Depreciation -- nonvehicles 2,146 674 14,192 2,589
Cost of car sales 58,415 36,020 205,791 113,747
Advertising, promotion and
selling 24,201 5,882 93,265 22,983
Facilities 29,457 5,482 95,558 20,406
Personnel 89,522 14,858 247,862 53,097
General and administrative 23,797 3,592 60,451 11,605
Amortization 3,473 375 8,454 1,843
Total operating costs and
expenses 369,134 94,341 1,132,476 322,103
OPERATING INCOME 43,412 2,009 171,286 35,267
OTHER (INCOME) EXPENSE
Interest -- vehicle 30,528 6,794 93,796 25,336
Interest -- other 7,304 215 19,933 2,776
Interest -- restricted cash (1,813) (260) (5,744) (781)
Interest -- related party 0 0 0 118
Total other (income) expense 36,019 6,749 107,985 27,449
INCOME BEFORE INCOME TAXES 7,393 (4,740) 63,301 7,818
Provision for income taxes 2,921 (1,074) 26,375 3,321
NET INCOME $4,472 $(3,666) $36,926 $4,497
Shares outstanding 25,650,000 11,253,000 20,466,000 9,224,000
Basic EPS 0.17 (0.33) 1.80 0.49
Diluted shares outstanding 26,420,000 11,253,000 26,245,000 9,488,000
Diluted EPS 0.17 (0.33) 1.60 0.47
-0-
BUDGET RENT A CAR CORP.
FOURTH QUARTER 1997 OPERATING STATISTICS
U.S. Vehicle Rental
1997 CHANGE FROM
FOURTH QUARTER PRIOR FOURTH QUARTER
(pro forma)
U.S. CARS
Average fleet 85,558 11.4%
Utilization 78.0% -96 bps
Rental days 6,142,116 10.0%
Daily dollar average $40.34 5.8%
Rental revenue $247,742,662 16.4%
Transactions 1,569,736 9.5%
Revenue per unit $969 5.8%
U.S. TRUCKS
Average fleet 11,222 16.3%
Utilization 58.4% 310 bps
Rental days 602,862 22.9%
Daily dollar average $56.94 -1.6%
Rental revenue $34,325,620 20.9%
Transactions 130,419 16.5%
Revenue per unit $1,020 4.0%
CONTACT: Budget Group, Inc. Scott White, 630/955-7600 |
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