United upgrades forecast for 2024

Photo: United Rentals

United Rentals has narrowed its forecast for the 2024 financial year and said that it remains well placed to capitalise on opportunities for long-term growth.

The company now expects revenue for the year to be in the region of $15 billion to $15.3 billion, a revision of its previous guidance of between $14.95 billion and $15.45 billion.

EBITDA has also been revised and is now expected to be between $7.09 billion to $7.24 billion.

Meanwhile, the company expects to maintain its previously announced capital expenditure for the year of up to $2.3 billion. 

The revisions were announced in its latest financial report, which revealed record rental revenues for the second quarter of 2024. During the quarter rental revenues reached $3.2 billion, an 8% increase on 2022.

Its general equipment rental segment saw moderate growth of 0.9% in the quarter, reaching $2.2 billion, while its specialty segment saw the highest amount of growth at 27.0% year-over-year to a second quarter record of $1 billion.

The company said growth in specialty was largely impacted by its purchase of temporary roadway rental business Yak Access, Yak Mat and New South Access & Environmental Solutions.

Elsewhere, despite reporting a 4.5% drop on the same period in 2022, used equipment sales were $365 million.

Matthew Flannery, chief executive officer of United Rentals, said, “We were pleased with our record second quarter results across revenue, adjusted EBITDA and EPS, as 2024 continues to play out as we expected. The integration of Yak remains on track. This acquisition builds upon our one-stop shop strategy of providing customers a best-in-class rental experience through our general rentals and specialty offerings.

“The team’s steadfast focus on providing this unique value proposition to our customers, coupled with an unwavering focus on safety, operational excellence and innovation, remains the cornerstone of our strategy and enables us to drive long-term shareholder value.”

Flannery added that the company is confident that its “consistent execution” will enable the company to deliver on the new guidance; “As we enter the second half of 2024, we are confident that our consistent execution will enable us to deliver on our updated guidance, with the mid-point for both revenue and adjusted EBITDA reaffirmed, and our expectations for capex and free cash flow unchanged.

“We continue to see particular strength in large projects, and believe we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on these opportunities in addition to other long-term avenues of growth.”

The Yak deal also saw the company achieve double digit growth in speciality at 27% year-over-year. Excluding the