In its first financial report since going public in November of last year, Neff Corp. showed a 13-percent rental revenue increase in the fourth quarter of 2014, with rental revenue of $83.7 million, compared to $74.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2013. Total revenues jumped 15.1 percent to $104.1 million, compared to $90.4 million a year ago.
For the full year 2014, Neff revenues jumped 13.7 percent to $372 million, compared to $327.2 million in 2013. Rental revenues increased 15.3 percent to $324.1 million, compared to $281 million in 2013.
“2014 proved to be an exciting year for the Neff team that included our successful initial public offering in November 2014,” said Neff CEO Graham Hood. “We built solid momentum throughout 2014 and expect positive trends to continue in 2015. We remain focused on executing our strategy and leveraging the growing demand from our customers as demonstrated by our results in the fourth quarter that included 13 percent rental revenue growth and a 350 basis point improvement in our adjusted EBITDA margin over last year.”
Adjusted EBITDA grew 23.6 percent to $52.8 million from $42.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2013. Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues was 50.7 percent compared to 47.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013. Rental rates improved 5.5 percent, compared to 6.6 percent, and time utilization was 67.6 percent compared to 70.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013.
For the full year, rental rate growth was 6.6 percent compared to 6.4 percent in 2013. Time utilization was 69.7 percent, compared to 70.9 percent in 2013.
On Dec. 31, 2014, original equipment cost of the company’s rental fleet was $704.3 million, up 14.9 percent from the end of 2013.
The outlook for 2015 is promising, according to Hood. “We have made significant investment in our business over the past couple of years as we strive to build a world-class equipment rental company and create shareholder value,” Hood said. “We continue to believe we are in the early stages of a multi-year expansion for our industry and we are especially encouraged by the opportunity for our earthmoving fleet to gain share as more customers are making the decisions to rent versus own. While we expect to see some slowdown in the 13 percent of our business that is directly focused on oil-and-gas activities, we believe that our diverse end-markets and focus on high-growth geographies will offset the oil-and-gas slowdown and enable us to execute and deliver another year of solid growth in 2015.”
