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Interim 2008 Avis Europe Plc Earnings Conference Call - Final.

Article Excerpt
Original Source: FD (FAIR DISCLOSURE) WIRE

OPERATOR: Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Avis Interim Results News Wires conference call. At this time all the disciplines are a listen only mode. There will be a presentation, followed by a question and answer session. (OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS).

I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today, Thursday, August 28, 2008.

I would now like to hand the conference to your first speaker for today, Pascal Bazin, please go ahead sir.

PASCAL BAZIN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, AVIS EUROPE PLC: Thank you, good morning everyone and thank you for joining us to talk about Avis interim results today. I am Pascal Bazin, Chief Executive of Avis Europe and I'm joined by Martyn Smith, our Finance Director.

I know it's a very busy day for everyone, so we'll just give you a quick run through the results and operating activity for the first half and then go to questions.

First, there are several key points to make. Economy conditions have been challenging for the industry in the first half, as they have been for everyone, particularly in Spain and the UK.

In that context, we have delivered good underlying trading results. Rental volumes, we are up, as was rental revenue per day, a measuring of pricing. However, these gains were offset by the impact of weaker used car market.

Going forward, we remain focused on the strategic priorities we outlined earlier this year, to drive growth, lower cost and ensure successful operation execution.

So moving on to the headline numbers, overall, revenue was up by 2.7% to EUR620.7 million in reported currency and up by 5.5% at constant exchange rate; a good overall performance supported by a well-balanced geographical spread.

For the main Avis corporately-owned business in Western Europe, we increased the volume by 2.3%, with all the countries ahead, except for Spain and Portugal, where the weaker economic element affected business levels.

Rental revenue per day, a measure of pricing, was up by 2% in the period, at constant currency rates. This improvement is for the second consecutive six-month period and we believe it is a good...