Growth moderates at United Rentals in Q3

Specialty rentals activity has driven a 7.5% increase in United Rentals’ third quarter revenues, with its general rental business almost flat year-on-year.

Specialty rentals, in areas such as trench shoring, power and pumps, saw a 23.9% increase to $1.13 billion, while its general rentals business rose by 0.9% to $2.32 billion.

Third quarter revenues at United Rentals were up by 7.5%.

Growth in specialty includes the impact of the acquisition of temporary roadway business Yak, which was concluded in March this year. Without that deal, specialty would still have grown by 14.8% year-on-year, while total equipment revenue growth would have been closer to 5%.

Gross profit for the period was up 3.8% to $1.65 billion, with EBITDA profit 2.9% higher at $1.90 billion.

The company has narrowed its full year forceast, with gross capital investment of fleet likely to be in the range of $3.55 billion to $3.75 billion - which compares to the previous guidance of $3.5-$3.8 billion.

Matthew Flannery, chief executive officer of United Rentals, said he was pleased with the results “which were in-line with our expectations and reflected continued growth across both our construction and industrial end-markets.”

He added; “As we enter the home-stretch of 2024, we’re happy to reaffirm the mid-points of our guidance across all metrics. Longer-term, we remain optimistic on the multiple secular tailwinds we see, particularly across large projects.”

In its results presentations United does not provide detailed information on the performance of its businesses in Europe - where it has 39 locations - or Australia/New Zealand, with 56 branches. It has 1571 locations in North America.