Mobility services provider Sixt has posted what it calls “by
far” its best quarterly result in the company’s history, with consolidated
operating revenue in the third quarter of 2021 up 2.2 per cent on pre-pandemic
levels.
The company has reported earnings before taxes (EBT) of €253.2
million for the third quarter, a fourfold increase on the same period last year
(€66 million) and up 72.8 per cent on the third quarter of 2019, Sixt's previous best year. At €795.2
million, revenue was 73 per cent higher than the same quarter in 2020 and 2.2
per cent higher than 2019.
Furthermore, Sixt said it has already earned more in the
first nine months of 2021 than it did in the whole of 2019 (€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 US 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 B2B revenue in
August and September higher than the levels seen in the same period of 2019.
The company said it benefitted from a “long summer season”
in Europe, with high demand continuing into the autumn. Revenue in the region
(excluding Germany) grew 82.3 per cent year on year to €386.7 million in the
third quarter. Germany grew at the “slightly more subdued pace” of 24.1 per
cent to €233.1 million, which Sixt attributes to the slow restart of business
travel in the country.
Sixt said its strategic growth measures implemented during
the pandemic had a particularly positive effect on its performance, with the
company pointing out the US as a high-growth market. In the nine months to 30
September, Sixt reported that sales had reached €413.1 million, an increase of
11.3 per cent on 2019’s numbers and double those seen in 2020.
According to Sixt, it is now the fourth-largest car rental
company in the US with 94 locations.
Sixt recently increased its full year forecast to earnings
of between €390 million and €450 million.
Professor Dr Kai Andrejewski, chief financial officer of
Sixt, commented: “Sixt is able to benefit more from the current market
situation in the European and US rental industry than our competitors and thus
further improve its market position. This is not least due to the fact that we
also invested during the corona crisis and thus anti-cyclically and
consistently implemented our internationalisation and digitalisation strategy.”