Rental car and mobility services provider Sixt has posted what it called “by far” the best quarterly result in the company’s history, with consolidated operating revenue in the third quarter of 2021 up 2.2 percent from pre-pandemic levels.
The company reported third-quarter earnings before taxes of €253.2 million, a fourfold increase on the same period last year (€66 million) and up 72.8 percent from the third quarter of 2019. At €795.2 million, revenue was 73 percent higher than the same quarter in 2020 and 2.2 percent higher than 2019.
Furthermore, Sixt said it already has earned more in the first nine months of 2021 than it did in the full-year 2019, at €317.4 million versus €308.2 million, respectively.
Sixt said it has benefitted from strong demand for mobility that continued into the autumn, particularly in the U.S. and European markets, along with an increase in market prices throughout the car rental industry caused by a shortage of new vehicles.
According to the company, as well as leisure travel, business travel has “also shown a clear recovery”, with global B-to-B revenue in August and September higher than the levels seen in the same period of 2019.
Sixt said strategic growth measures implemented during the pandemic had a particularly positive effect on its performance, with the company pointing to the U.S. as a high-growth market. In the nine months ending Sept. 30, Sixt reported U.S. sales reached €413.1 million, an increase of 11.3 percent from 2019 and double sales seen in 2020.
According to Sixt, it is now the fourth-largest car rental company in the U.S., with 94 locations.
The company said it benefitted from a “long summer season” in Europe, with high demand continuing into the autumn. Third-quarter revenue in the region (excluding Germany) grew 82.3 percent year over year to €386.7 million. Germany grew at the “slightly more subdued pace” of 24.1 percent to €233.1 million, which Sixt attributed to the slow restart of business travel in the country.
Sixt recently increased its full-year forecast to earnings of between €390 million and €450 million.