ASHTF - Ashtead Group plc (ASHTF) Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript
2024-03-05 16:19:06 ET
Ashtead Group plc (ASHTF)
Q3 2024 Results Conference Call
March 05, 2024 5:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Brendan Horgan - CEO & Executive Director
Michael Pratt - CFO & Director
Conference Call Participants
Rob Wertheimer - Melius
Annelies Vermeulen - Morgan Stanley
Suhasini Varanasi - Goldman Sachs
William Kirkness - Societe Generale
Arnaud Lehmann - BofA
Neil Tyler - Redburn
James Rosenthal - Barclays
Allen Wells - Jefferies
Rory McKenzie - UBS
Presentation
Brendan Horgan
Thank you. And good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Ashtead Group Q3 and 9 months results presentation. I'm speaking this morning from our U.S. support office and joined as usual by Michael Pratt and Will Shaw in London. Given our Sunbelt 4.0 event in Atlanta at the end of April is rapidly approaching, we'll keep it deliberately brief this morning. However, before getting into the meat of the presentation, I'll begin as usual by addressing our Sunbelt team members listening in today.
By recognizing our entire team for their focus around our program of Engage for Life, in our branches, on our customers' locations and on the road. In calendar year '23, we experienced our best year on record when it comes to protecting our team members. Further, I'd like to specifically give credit to the thousands of team members we have who drive a company vehicle. Our delivery drivers, field service technicians, crew leaders and our sales force, who not only contributed to our overall safety statistics, but also posted our best-ever safety performance behind the wheel. This was a very good year, and I hope all of you share in the pride of being part of a company leading with such intention when it comes to the safety and well-being of our people, our customers and the members of the communities we serve. So thank you for all you do, and please keep leading positively and safely out there.
Now let's begin with the 9-month highlights on Slide 3. The business delivered strong revenue growth in the first 9 months, driven by strength in our North American end markets, the ongoing momentum and execution in our business as we follow our Sunbelt 3.0 playbook and the very clear structural progression being realized in our industry. For the period, group revenue and rental revenues increased 14% and 11%, respectively, while U.S. revenue improved by 15% and rental revenue by 12%.
Group EBITDA improved 12% to $3.752 billion, while adjusted PBT was flat at $1.785 billion, leading to EPS of $3.7. As detailed in November and again in December, we faced some year-on-year headwinds in the third quarter as a result of lower levels of emergency response work in North America, as well as the ongoing impact of the actors and writers strike on Film & TV activity across the group. As expected, this impacted revenues and profits in the quarter. From a capital allocation standpoint in accordance with our priorities, we invested $3.5 billion in CapEx, which fueled our existing locations and greenfield additions, with new rental fleet and delivery vehicles. We expanded our North American footprint by 106 locations, with 58 through greenfield openings and a further 48 via bolt-on, investing $906 million on 26 bolt-on acquisitions....
Ashtead Group plc (ASHTF) Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript