Avis Budget remain cautious after Q3 results

Avis Budget Group reported on  Monday a 3rd quarter earnings of $57 million, up from a net loss of $1.01 billion in the same quarter in 2008.

The hire car company attributed the profit to solid domestic leisure pricing, which offset soft demand levels, and intense cost control and management, bringing to a gain in its forecast of realized cost savings for 2009 to $350-400 million.

Avis Budget Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ronald L. Nelson said it had been also helped in the 3rd quarter by the intensity of the used car market which granted the company to actively manage the fleet in agreement with demand to optimize pricing.

Car hire profits dropped 14 percent chiefly due a 21 percent drop in rental days.

Revenue went down 14 percent to $1.47 billion as EBITDA increased 17 percent year-on-year to $165 million.

In spite of the strong gains in EBITDA, Avis remained conservative in its outlook.

While demand for vehicle rentals appears to have stabilized, the Company expects the macroeconomic climate will remain challenging and rental volumes in the fourth quarter will again be lower than in the comparable 2008 period, it said.