Hertz posts 1Q loss but sees market stabilizing

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On Tuesday, Hertz Global Holdings announced a first quarter loss on revenues that fell sharply, but also indicated that rental demand was beginning to stabilize, world-wide.

The company, which is the largest consumer car hire company in the world, is pointing to a bottoming of the cycle, even though it continues to cut costs in an attempt to turn around its business that was severely affected by the cutback in leisure and business travel spending.

Hertz’s loss, which excludes one-time and exceptional items such as restructuring charges, amounted to 25 cents per share. For the same quarter in 2008, the rental car giant posted profits amounting to two cents per share. The current loss was not far off analyst estimates of a 22-cent per share loss.

Its first quarter revenue, of $1.6 billion, however, was below the average expectation of analysts, according to Reuters Estimates.

Investors are now watching to see if the rental car operator will pick up additional assets. Earlier this month, Hertz won an auction for the assets of bankrupt Advantage Rent-A-Car, which the company says will help galvanize its growth in the US leisure rental market.

Hertz said a recently-released statement: “Leisure market car rental pricing continues to improve, while corporate pricing declines should moderate with easier second half 2009 comparisons.”

Thanks to uk.reuters.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

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