Zenith, the UK’s largest independent truck-to-car vehicle leasing and fleet management company, today announced a trading update for the nine months to 31 December 2024.
- Adjusted EBITDA excluding residual value (RV) profits up 16.1% year-on-year (YOY).
- Overall adjusted EBITDA was £33.8m, down 28.4% YOY due to continued lower RV profits.
- Total vehicles under management at 170k.
- Corporate funded fleet increased by 5.7% YoY.
- BEV concentration in the Corporate and Consumer funded fleet1 and order bank remains balanced, comprising 46% (27,871) battery electric vehicles (BEV) and 46% of the 5,393 vehicles in the order bank.
- 29%2 of BEV contracts formally extended as part of Project Volt, the group’s lease extension programme to address the decline in used electric vehicle prices.
- EFP securitisation facility extended, with revolving period end date extended by one year to November 2026. £50m of cash collateralisation injected into the EFP securitisation by existing equity investor, Bridgepoint.
[1] Excluding managed fleet and Commercial division vehicles.
[2] Percentages calculated as number of formal extensions / contracts within scope.
Tim Buchan, Zenith chief executive officer commented:
“While the trading environment remains challenging, our underlying business continues to strengthen with adjusted EBITDA excluding Residual Value profits, growing 16.1% YOY. We’ve delivered a positive performance in our Corporate-sponsored schemes, particularly salary sacrifice, where orders increased by 37% in the last quarter year on year, as businesses look for cost effective ways to retain employees. In our Commercial division, we’ve continued to grow our MSU maintenance solutions, and our trailer rental business delivered a successful Christmas peak period. The new business pipeline, in particular for new fleet management contracts, remains strong.
“With the industry not meeting the first ZEV mandate target last year, we look forward to the outcome of the recently closed Government consultation which requested input from our sector to identify the support needed to encourage the uptake of zero-emission vehicles by consumers and businesses. We’re also encouraged by the recent stability in used BEV car prices that we, and the wider industry, have seen.”
