In its first-quarter financial report, Essex Rental Corp. announced total revenue, excluding proceeds from the divestiture of aerial work platform assets, for the three-month period ended March 31, 2013 increased by $4.5 million or 22.5% to $24.6 million as compared to $20.1 million for the three-month period ended March 31, 2012, and increased 7.4% from $22.9 million for the three-month period ended December 31, 2012.
Document: Essex Rental Corp. 2013 First-Quarter Results
Highlights:
- Equipment rental revenue increased by $1.2 million or 11.7% to $11.5 million for the three month period ended March 31, 2013 compared to$10.3 million for the three month period ended March 31, 2012;
- For the third consecutive quarter, utilization for all rental asset categories increased on a year over year basis;
- Crawler crane utilization increased to 43.9% for the three month period ended March 31, 2013 compared to 37.0% for the three month period ended March 31, 2012;
- Average monthly rental rates for crawler cranes increased by $742 or 4.6% to $16,975 for the three month period ended March 31, 2013 from$16,233 for the three month period ended March 31, 2012;
- Adjusted EBITDA before non-cash compensation and non-recurring expenses for the three month period ended March 31, 2013 increased 68.7% to $4.4 million as compared to $2.6 million for the three month period ended March 31, 2012; and
- Adjusted EBITDA before non-cash compensation and non-recurring expenses for the trailing twelve month period ended March 31, 2013increased by $9.5 million or 99.6% to $19.0 million from $9.5 million for the trailing twelve month period ended March 31, 2012.
CEO Comments
Ron Schad, president and CEO of Essex stated, "While our results are encouraging, I believe that we are still in the early stages of what will be a gradual recovery in utilization and rental rates for all of the assets that we rent. We are pleased with the year over year improvements we experienced in both our equipment rentals segment and our equipment distribution segment. As expected, the first quarter 2013 results were marginally negatively impacted by seasonality as our first quarter is generally our weakest quarter of our fiscal year."
"Utilization and average monthly rental rates across all of our asset categories increased on a year over year basis in the first quarter of 2013. This marks the third consecutive quarter in which all of our asset categories have increased utilization on a year over year basis. Within our crawler crane fleet, we are encouraged by the utilization trends for our hydraulic heavy lift crawler cranes. These hydraulic crawler cranes have higher dollar rental rates and account for approximately 70% of the value of our crawler crane fleet and approximately 50% of the value of our total fleet. Utilization for our fleet of heavy lift hydraulic crawler cranes for the quarter ended March 31, 2013 was 60.5% and has now been above 60% for the past 3 quarters. Furthermore, utilization of this asset class has increased in each month this year and is currently in excess of 69%. While quoting activity related to contractors that have been awarded construction projects has been lower than our expectations thus far in 2013, our win rate on these quotes has been better than expected. We will continue to closely monitor quoting activity as we believe it is an important indicator of future business performance."
"As we have previously mentioned, we completed the refinancing of all of our operating company debt in the first quarter of 2013 and extended maturities to 2016 and beyond. We are extremely pleased with the long-term financial stability that the refinancing provides. During the first quarter of 2013, we also completed the divestiture of all aerial work platform equipment from our rental fleet. Our focus is now on selling excess core rental equipment to pay down debt or recycle our capital into asset classes where we are experiencing higher demand."
