Letter to Our Stockholders
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In 2020, we achieved a net income margin Letter to our of 10.4% and an adjusted EBITDA margin1 of 46.1% — within 220 and 50 basis points Stockholders of 2019, respectively, despite significantly lower demand. We also generated net cash provided by operating activities of We executed well in a difficult year, drawing $2.7 billion and record free cash flow1 of on the disciplines we’ve engineered into $2.4 billion, contributing to the $3.1 billion of our business for more than a decade. Most total liquidity we had at year-end. importantly, we delivered on our promises. These results reflect the considerable economic Nothing about 2020 was business as usual. The constraints of the pandemic, mitigated by the year began on a positive note that dissipated resilience of our business model. Beyond that, as the pandemic took root. We moved quickly our performance reflects the fierce determination to establish the priorities that would guide us of our team, strong capital management and in the coming months: protect our employees, rigorous cost discipline. provide continuity of service for our customers, maintain our service capacity and safeguard the A purposeful response interests of our investors. We’re proud that United To manage effectively through the pandemic, we Rentals met all of these objectives, while providing took a balanced short-term and long-term view. essential services to our communities. Each time we committed to a course of action, we considered all of the implications of that The trough for equipment rental came in April, decision. For instance, with capital expenditures, and demand stayed at low ebb for several weeks we aggressively curtailed fleet purchases in 2020 before starting to improve. Our agility served us while continuing with the planned opening of 15 well in the unpredictable market conditions that specialty rental cold-starts. We chose to use the followed. By year-end, most of our markets were excess capital to reduce our net leverage ratio on a steady path to recovery that has continued to 2.4x at year-end, below the mid-point of our into 2021. target range of 2.0x to 3.0x. For the full year 2020, we reported total revenue of over $8.5 billion, GAAP diluted earnings per share of $12.20, and adjusted EPS1 of $17.44. Net income was $890 million, and adjusted EBITDA1 was $3.9 billion. Our return on invested capital (ROIC) at year-end was 8.9%, which comfortably exceeded our weighted average cost of capital of approximately 7.0%. Cost discipline is a perpetual focus for our Our full-year guidance for 2021 is for total revenue business. At the start of the pandemic, we made in the range of $8.625 billion to $9.025 billion, and a deliberate decision to avoid reactive cuts to our adjusted EBITDA of $3.925 billion to $4.125 billion. operations that would harm customer service, slow We expect net rental capex to be between $1.15 us down in the upcycle or impact our longer-term billion and $1.45 billion, after gross purchases of earnings power. To make this work, our branch $2.0 billion to $2.3 billion. We’re guiding to net teams adjusted the way they shared fleet. They cash provided by operating activities in the range of also reduced their reliance on outside resources, $2.95 billion to $3.45 billion, and free cash flow of and some team members took on cross-functional $1.65 billion to $1.85 billion. roles. The learnings we gained from these experiences have been incorporated into our The silver lining to last year is that it gave us operations, and we’re leveraging them as demand an opportunity to show how purposefully we rebounds. can operate our resilient company, to generate returns across cycles. We prevailed in 2020 by We’re tremendously proud of all our employees prioritizing safety, executing well, mitigating risk and for their perseverance and their professionalism. maintaining our financial stability. That’s what our 2020 asked a lot of them and they delivered. investors expect, and that’s what United Rentals will Due to the efforts of Team United, our company’s continue to deliver. safety recordable rate remained below 1.0 for all four quarters of 2020, which is a remarkable March 23, 2021 achievement. And it’s to their credit that our COVID-19 protocols were adopted so quickly, Matthew J. Flannery Michael J. Kneeland allowing our company to serve our customers Chief Executive Officer Chairman of the Board safely. Outlook Now, in 2021, our strategy of keeping the key in the ignition on service capacity has turned out to be the right decision. Demand is continuing to recover and we have a powerful engine driving the business toward a return to growth. While visibility is still imperfect, the current trends in our end-markets are decidedly encouraging. 1 Adjusted EPS, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow are non-GAAP measures. Please see the reconciliation of these measures to the comparable GAAP measures contained in the “Management Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” section in the accompanying Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, and in our fiscal 2020 earnings press release furnished on Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 27, 2021. Net income margin and adjusted EBITDA margin represent net income or adjusted EBITDA divided by total revenue. Directors and Officers Board of Directors Executive Officers Corporate Vice Presidents Regional Vice Presidents Michael J. Kneeland Matthew J. Flannery Tomer Barkan Jason C. Barba Chairman President and Chief Vice President Vice President Executive Officer Planning and Analysis Carolinas Region Bobby J. Griffin (3) Lead Independent Director Jessica T. Graziano Christopher P. Carmolingo Robert C. Bower Executive Vice President Vice President Vice President José B. Alvarez (3, 4) and Chief Financial Officer Service Operations Pacific West Region Senior Lecturer Harvard Business School Dale A. Asplund John J. Fahey Chris A. Burlog Executive Vice President Vice President Vice President Marc A. Bruno (2, 3) and Chief Operating Officer Internal Audit Midwest Region Chief Operating Officer U.S. Food & Facilities Craig A. Pintoff William “Ted” Grace John “Scott” Fisher Aramark Corporation Executive Vice President Vice President Vice President Chief Administrative and Investor Relations Western Canada Region Matthew J. Flannery (4) Legal Officer President and Homer “Ned” Graham Todd M. Hayes Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey J. Fenton Vice President Vice President United Rentals, Inc. Senior Vice President Operations Excellence Trench Safety Region Business Development Kim Harris Jones (1, 2) Daniel T. Higgins Antwan J. Houston Director Andrew B. Limoges Vice President Vice President Vice President, Controller Chief Information Officer Tools Solutions Terri L. Kelly (2, 3, 4) and Principal Accounting Director Officer Mitchell J. Holder John J. Humphrey Vice President Vice President Gracia Martore (1, 2, 3) Senior Vice Presidents Total Rewards Mid-Atlantic Region Director Michael G. Cloer Brent R. Kuchynka Thomas P. Jones Filippo Passerini (1, 4) Senior Vice President Vice President Vice President Director Operations Corporate Fleet Management Onsite Services Donald C. Roof (1, 2) Michael D. Durand Anthony S. Leopold William A. Kiker Director Senior Vice President Vice President Vice President Sales and Western Strategy & Business Development Specialty Business Shiv Singh (1, 3, 4) Division Operations Senior Vice President & General Cristina Madry John “Eddie” King Manager, Expedia, Inc. Joli L. Gross Vice President Vice President Senior Vice President Health, Safety & Employee Relations Gulf South Region General Counsel and Corporate Secretary Ty “TJ” Mahoney Donald “Chad” Matter Vice President Vice President Kenneth B. Mettel Supply Chain Industrial Region Senior Vice President Performance Analytics Gordon McDonald Jeffrey S. McGinnis Vice President Vice President Irene Moshouris Managed Services South Region Senior Vice President Treasurer Craig A. Schmidt Kevin M. O’Brien Vice President Vice President Kevin C. Parr National Accounts Mid-Central Region Senior Vice President Operations Daniel C. Sparks Nicholas M. Roberts Vice President Vice President Joseph W. Pledger Sales Operations and Support Southeast Region Senior Vice President Finance Jason L. Rose Vice President David C. Scott Fluid Solutions Senior Vice President Specialty Operations Stephen M. Szaniszlo Vice President Norton Turner Jr. Northeast Canada Region Senior Vice President Services and Advanced Jurgen M. Verschoor Solutions Vice President and Managing Director, Europe Larry K. Worthington Jr. Vice President Power & HVAC Region Committees of the Board (1) Audit Committee, Donald C. Roof, Chair (2) Compensation Committee, Gracia Martore, Chair (3) Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, José B. Alvarez, Chair (4) Strategy Committee, Terri Kelly, Chair Michael J. Kneeland Bobby J. Griffin José B. Alvarez Marc A. Bruno Matthew J. Flannery Kim Harris Jones Terri L. Kelly Gracia Martore Filippo Passerini Donald C. Roof Shiv Singh TOTAL RETURN TO STOCKHOLDERS The tables and graph assume that $100 was invested on December 31, 2015 in shares of our common stock, shares of stock comprising the S&P 500 Index, shares comprising the Peer Group Index, and the reinvestment of any dividends. The returns of each company within each of the S&P 500 Index, and the Peer Group Index have been weighted annually for their respective stock market capitalization. Total Cumulative Return (Includes reinvestment of dividends) Annual Return Percentage Years Ending Company Name / Index 12/31/16 12/31/17 12/31/18 12/31/19 12/31/20 United Rentals, Inc. 45.55 62.82 -40.36 62.65 39.06 S&P 500 Index 11.96 21.83 -4.38 31.49 18.40 Peer Group Index 28.14 26.35 -4.70 32.27 20.63 Indexed Returns Years Ending Base Period Company Name / Index 12/31/15 12/31/16 12/31/17 12/31/18 12/31/19 12/31/20 United Rentals, Inc.