Europcar trimmed first quarter losses to €20 million against €69 million in the same period last year
The improvement reflects the benefits of a reshaping of the capital structure of the car rental company following its IPO last summer.
Total revenue edged up by €4 million year-on-year to €418 million, representing the eighth quarter of consecutive growth for the group.
The number of rental days increased by 3.5% to 11.8 million with a good increase notably in southern countries and in Australia and New Zealand.
But the trend was less favourable on the corporate side, notably in Belgium due to the terrorist attacks, and in the UK, in particular for car replacement activities, according to Europcar.
Chairman Philippe Germond said: “Europcar has achieved sound performance over this first quarter.
“We keep up the deployment of the second phase of our transformation program, Fast Lane, focusing on commercial initiatives and on our customer journey.
“Our low-cost brand, InterRent, recorded very good results over the quarter with a growth of 90% of the rental revenue, especially in our southern European countries, strengthening our ambition on this growing market.
“Furthermore, we have reached a new step in our customer strategy with the choice of a CRM solution aiming at offering a high quality mobility experience in order to create brand preference.”
He said he was “very confident” on delivering the group’s guidance for 2016 guidance.
“Finally, I would like to highlight again our strong commitment to create more value for our shareholders through acquisitions and the development of new mobility services,” added Germond.