Avis Budget Group, Inc. (CAR) is best known for its Avis and Budget brand of rental cars, which have more than 11,000 rental locations in 180 countries around the world, explains David Fried, editor of the specialized advisory service, The Buyback Letter.
Avis Budget Group operates most of its car rental offices in North America, Europe and Australasia directly, and operates primarily through licensees in other parts of the world. Its other brand, Zipcar, is the world’s leading car sharing network, with more than 1 million members.
CAR also formed a technology partnership with German-based auto manufacturing company Continenal, which means that 50,000 vehicles in the rental fleet are equipped with keyless lock/unlocking and ignition using the Avis mobile app.
Avis hopes to have a fully connected fleet by the end of 2020 so customers can manage their entire rental experience through the mobile app.
In addition, a connected fleet allows CAR to streamline operations and reduce costs, including real-time inventory counts, mileage management and automated maintenance notification. Having a fleet of connected cars enables more sophisticated tracking of idle vehicles, and automated processing of cars ready to rent.
CAR has formed a number of partnerships with other firms, which seems to be a strategy for business growth.
* It entered into a “mobility partnership” with Brightline, the private passenger rail service. Avis Budget will allow Brightline passengers and those living or working near Brightline’s stations to rent Avis rental cars and Zipcar vehicles through Brightline's mobile app and website.
* It partnered with Amazon to reward Amazon’s customers who rent on Avis Car.
* Zipcar partnered with Volkswagen to add 325 electric Golf to its London offering. It also partnered with the City of Columbus in order to be available to businesses, visitors and local residents.
* Avis’ ongoing partnership with Alphabet’s GOOGL Waymo (to provide fleet management services to Waymo’s self-driving vehicles in Phoenix) has now expanded to other areas as well. It also partnered with Lyft to add thousands of vehicles to the Lyft Express Drive program across North America.
Q3 results were disappointing to many, with a 1% gain in revenue year over year. Avis expects full-year earnings in the range of $3.30-$3.70 per share, with revenue in the range of $9.1-$9.2 billion. Q4 results will be coming Feb. 20. Shares outstanding have been reduced by 5.06% in the last 12 months.
