Revenue stable after "tough year"
Europcar reported a drop in its operating income for 2008 to €253m compared with €298m for the previous year.
But its operating margin fell from 14.1% to 11.9%.
The French car hire company said its revenue had stayed stable in what had been a "tough year."
During the year, Europcar which is owned by investment company Eurazeo, said revenue had increased by 0.5% from €2,111m in 2007 to €2,122m last year.
In 2008, Europcar said it had acquired its master franchisee for Asia-Pacific, a fast growing region for car hire, and signed a commercial alliance with Enterprise Rent-a-Car in North America.
Groupe's ceo, said: "In the second half of 2008, our industry experienced a strong decline in demand, due to the economic downturn.
Thanks to our balanced geographic and business segment base, Europcar performed better than the other major players in our industry.
"We are nonetheless responding to unprecedented challenges to our industry with measures of far-reaching scope and ambition.
"We are determined to emerge from the downturn as an even stronger company."
www.europcar.com