Ahern Rentals posted $80.2 million in revenue for the third quarter of 2010, a 10.6-percent increase compared with third quarter of 2009, when it brought in $72.5 million. Rental and related revenue increased as well, but by a less impressive 4.7 percent, improving from $65 million in last year’s third quarter to $68.1 million this year.
For the first nine months of 2010, the company is basically flat, with $213 million in total revenue, compared with $214.6 million for the year-ago quarter. Rental revenues dropped 5.7 percent for the first nine months, from $190 million in 2009 to $179.1 million this year.
EBITDA for the third quarter was $18.2 million, a very slight increase from the third quarter of 2009, when it was $18.1 million. EBITDA margin dropped from 24.9 percent in the year-ago quarter to 22.7 percent this year.
With the Las Vegas construction market still slow, Ahern Rentals continues to follow several strategies:
- Redeploying unutilized rental fleet to existing branch locations with higher demand and also to new markets with high growth potential in an effort to improve the utilization of its rental fleet and diversify the business;
- Reducing capital expenditures. The company spent $42 million in capex in 2009, and only $6 million in this year’s third quarter. It expects capex for the full year to be significantly less than in 2009;
- Cost containment through personnel reduction and renegotiation of vendor pricing structures;
- Expanding its customer base into infrastructure-related, alternative energy and other end-user markets that are different from non-residential construction. The company entered into more than 100 national account agreements with customers;
- Selling excess fleet as market conditions warrant.
Based in Las Vegas, Ahern Rentals is No. 7 on the RER 100.
