Hertz Revises Full Year 2013 Guidance

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Sep 26, 2013, 05:45 ET

PARK RIDGE, N.J., Sept. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: HTZ) (with its subsidiaries, the "Company" or "we") today announced revised guidance for full-year 2013 revenues, adjusted pre-tax income, Corporate EBITDA, adjusted net income and adjusted diluted earnings per share. Guidance for full year 2013 corporate cash flow is unchanged. Guidance is revised as follows:

($ in Millions)	February 2013 Guidance	September 2013 Guidance
Revenues	10,850.0 – 10,950.0	10,800.0 – 10,900.0
Adj. Pre-Tax Income	1,270.0 – 1,340.0	1,200.0 – 1,270.0
Corporate EBITDA	2,210.0 – 2,270.0	2,120.0 – 2,190.0
Adj. Net Income	830.0 – 875.0	780.0 – 830.0
Adj. EPS	1.78 – 1.88	1.68 – 1.78*
Corporate Cash Flow	500.0 – 600.0	500.0 – 600.0

* The guidance for adjusted diluted earnings per share range is based on 465 million shares. Note that the prior guidance was based on 455 million shares which has been impacted by our share price throughout the year. The Company estimates that the share count difference results in a $0.04 per share variance. Based on a share count of 455 million shares, the February 2013 adjusted diluted EPS guidance range was $1.82 - $1.92.

"We are revising full year 2013 guidance primarily because of weaker than anticipated volume generated by the Hertz brand in the U.S. airport car rental market, our largest business," said Mark P. Frissora, the Company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Weaker volume impacts not only revenues, but also generates related fleet issues, including lower utilization and the inability of the used car market to absorb our excess vehicles at current market prices. Fortunately, stronger pricing in the U.S. airport car rental market is helping to partially offset softer volume. Despite these challenges, we anticipate Hertz will nevertheless generate record earnings for the full year, with adjusted pre-tax income up more than 30% year-over-year. Additionally, we are encouraged by the strong, ongoing performance of several of our businesses including: Hertz car rental off-airport, Dollar Thrifty, Donlen and HERC. We are especially pleased that the European car rental business has made significant progress throughout 2013, overcoming the protracted recession in that market," Frissora added.

The Company noted that Mr. Frissora will be speaking at the MKM Partners Entertainment and Leisure Conference at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City on September 26, 2013. He will discuss the slides attached to this press release (Exhibit A) pertaining to the revised full year 2013 guidance.

About Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Corporate EBITDA represents EBITDA as adjusted for car rental fleet interest, car rental fleet depreciation and certain other items. EBITDA is defined as net income before net interest expense, income taxes and depreciation (which includes revenue earning equipment lease charges) and amortization. Adjusted pre-tax income is calculated as income before income taxes plus non-cash purchase accounting charges, non-cash debt charges relating to the amortization of debt financing costs and debt discounts and certain one-time charges and non-operational items. Adjusted net income is calculated as adjusted pre-tax income less a provision for income taxes derived utilizing a normalized income tax rate and noncontrolling interest. Adjusted diluted earnings per share is calculated as adjusted net income divided by the weighted average diluted shares outstanding for the period. Management believes that Corporate EBITDA, adjusted pre-tax income, adjusted net income and adjusted diluted earnings per share are useful in measuring the comparable results of the Company period-over-period. The GAAP measures most directly comparable to Corporate EBITDA, adjusted pre-tax income, adjusted net income and adjusted diluted earnings per share are (i) pre-tax income and cash flows from operating activities, (ii) pre-tax income, (iii) net income, and (iv) diluted earnings per share, respectively. Because of the forward-looking nature of the Company's forecasted Corporate EBITDA, adjusted pre-tax income, adjusted net income and adjusted diluted earnings per share, specific quantifications of the amounts that would be required to reconcile forecasted cash flows from operating activities, pre-tax income and net income are not available. The Company believes that there is a degree of volatility with respect to certain of the Company's GAAP measures, primarily related to fair value accounting for its financial assets (which includes the Company's derivative financial instruments), its income tax reporting and certain adjustments made to arrive at the relevant non-GAAP measures, which preclude the Company from providing accurate forecasted reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP measures. Based on the above, the Company believes that providing estimates of the amounts that would be required to reconcile the range of the non-GAAP Corporate EBITDA, adjusted pre-tax income, adjusted net income and adjusted diluted earnings per share to forecasted cash flows from operating activities, pre-tax income, net income and diluted earnings per share would imply a degree of precision that would be confusing or misleading to investors for the reasons identified above.

CAUTIONARY NOTE CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This communication contains "forward-looking statements." Examples of forward-looking statements include information concerning our liquidity and its possible or assumed future results of operations, including descriptions of its business strategy. These forward-looking statements often include words such as "believe," "expect," "project," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "estimate," "seek," "will," "may," "would," "should," "could," "forecasts" or similar expressions. These statements are based on certain assumptions that the Company has made in light of its experience in the industry as well as its perceptions of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors that the Company believes are appropriate in these circumstances. You should understand that these statements are not guarantees of performance or results. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could affect our actual financial results and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements, due to a variety of important factors, both positive and negative.

Among other items, such factors could include: our ability to integrate the car rental operations of Dollar Thrifty and realize operational efficiencies from the acquisition; the risk that expected synergies and cost savings from the Dollar Thrifty acquisition may not be fully realized or realized within the expected time frame; the operational and profitability impact of the Advantage divestiture and the divestiture of the airport locations that we agreed to undertake in order to secure regulatory approval for the Dollar Thrifty acquisition; levels of travel demand, particularly with respect to airline passenger traffic in the United States and in global markets; the impact of pending and future U.S. governmental action to address budget deficits through reductions in spending and similar austerity measures, which could materially adversely affect unemployment rates and consumer spending levels; significant changes in the competitive environment, including as a result of industry consolidation, and the effect of competition in our markets, including on our pricing policies or use of incentives; occurrences that disrupt rental activity during our peak periods; our ability to achieve cost savings and efficiencies and realize opportunities to increase productivity and profitability; an increase in our fleet costs as a result of an increase in the cost of new vehicles and/or a decrease in the price at which we dispose of used vehicles either in the used vehicle market or under repurchase or guaranteed depreciation programs; our ability to accurately estimate future levels of rental activity and adjust the size and mix of our fleet accordingly; our ability to maintain sufficient liquidity and the availability to us of additional or continued sources of financing for our revenue earning equipment and to refinance our existing indebtedness; safety recalls by the manufacturers of our vehicles and equipment; a major disruption in our communication or centralized information networks; financial instability of the manufacturers of our vehicles and equipment; any impact on us from the actions of our licensees, franchisees, dealers and independent contractors; our ability to maintain profitability during adverse economic cycles and unfavorable external events (including war, terrorist acts, natural disasters and epidemic disease); shortages of fuel and increases or volatility in fuel costs; our ability to successfully integrate acquisitions and complete dispositions; our ability to maintain favorable brand recognition; costs and risks associated with litigation; risks related to our indebtedness, including our substantial amount of debt, our ability to incur substantially more debt and increases in interest rates or in our borrowing margins; our ability to meet the financial and other covenants contained in our Senior Credit Facilities, our outstanding unsecured Senior Notes and certain asset-backed and asset-based arrangements; changes in accounting principles, or their application or interpretation, and our ability to make accurate estimates and the assumptions underlying the estimates, which could have an effect on earnings; changes in the existing, or the adoption of new laws, regulations, policies or other activities of governments, agencies and similar organizations where such actions may affect our operations, the cost thereof or applicable tax rates; changes to our senior management team; the effect of tangible and intangible asset impairment charges; the impact of our derivative instruments, which can be affected by fluctuations in interest rates and commodity prices; and our exposure to fluctuations in foreign exchange rates. Additional information concerning these and other factors can be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K.

The Company therefore cautions you against relying on these forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on the Company's behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements. All such statements speak only as of the date made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

ABOUT HERTZ
Hertz Global Holdings, through its subsidiary The Hertz Corporation ("Hertz," the "Company" or "we"), operates its car rental business through the Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty brands from approximately 10,900 corporate, licensee and franchisee locations in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, Australia, Africa, the Middle East and New Zealand. Hertz is the largest worldwide airport general use car rental brand, operating from approximately 9,300 corporate and licensee locations in approximately 150 countries. Our Dollar and Thrifty brands have approximately 1,600 corporate and franchisee locations in approximately 90 countries. Our Hertz brand name is one of the most recognized in the world, signifying leadership in quality rental services and products. We are one of the only car rental companies that has an extensive network of company‑operated rental locations both in the United States and in all major European markets. We believe that we maintain the leading airport car rental brand market share, by overall reported revenues, in the United States and at 120 major airports in Europe where we have company‑operated locations and where data regarding car rental concessionaire activity is available. We believe that we also maintain the second largest market share, by overall reported revenues, in the off-airport car rental market in the United States. In our equipment rental business segment, we rent equipment through approximately 340 branches in the United States, Canada, France, Spain, China and Saudi Arabia, as well as through our international licensees. We and our predecessors have been in the car rental business since 1918 and in the equipment rental business since 1965. We also own Donlen Corporation, based in Northbrook, Illinois, which is a leader in providing fleet leasing and management services.