Rental revenues increased 3.3 percent in the fourth quarter for Neff Rental totaling $86.5 million compared to $83.7 million for the fourth quarter in 2014. Total fourth quarter revenue was $106.1 million, up 1.9 percent compared to $104.1 million in Q414. For the full year, rental revenues increased 3.7 percent to $336 million compared to $324.1 million in 2014. Total revenue for the full year jumped 3.2 percent to $383.9 million compared to $372 million in 2014.
Rental rates grew 1 percent for the full year, but decreased 1.3 percent year over year in the fourth quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was essentially flat at $186.2 million compared to $186.1 million in 2014. For the fourth quarter EBITDA was $49.4 million, down from the record $52.8 in the fourth quarter of 2014.
“We generated good results in 2015 with record rental revenues and adjusted EBITDA, despite the challenges from the decline in upstream oil and gas demand,” said Graham Hood, Neff Corp. CEO. “During 2015, we experienced solid growth in our core construction-driven end markets and anticipate further growth in these markets in 2016. Outside of our branches directly affected by oil and gas, our rental revenues were up by 12.7 percent and our EBITDA was up by 11.4 percent for the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to prior year. Our approach for 2016 is to be cautious with our capex spending and to focus on rental demand in our construction end markets.”
Time utilization for the full year was 66.8 percent compared to 69.7 percent in 2014. In the fourth quarter, time utilization was 66.8 percent compared to 67.6 percent in the year-ago period.
Original equipment cost of the company’s rental fleet was $765.7 million at the end of 2015, 8.7 percent higher than at the end of 2014. Average age of the rental fleet was 45 months, unchanged from the end of 2014.
Neff is forecasting total revenue for 2016 in the range of $390 million to $410 million, with adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $190 million to $200 million. The company expects rental rates to increase from 0 to 2 percent in 2016.
“We have made significant investments in our business over the past couple of years as we strive to create shareholder value,” said Hood. “We believe the multi-year expansion for our industry will continue and we are especially encouraged by the opportunity for our earthmoving fleet to gain market share as more customers are making the decision to rent versus own. We expect to see a decreasing impact from the showdown in our oil-and-gas markets and we believe that our diverse end markets and our focus on high growth geographies will enable us to execute and deliver another year of solid growth in 2016.”
Neff Rental, based in Miami, is No. 10 on the RER 100.
