Locates is high in the 2nd tri profit with strong vehicle sales

São Paulo — the country's largest vehicle rental and fleet management company, Localiza, had two-digit growths in the sales of semi-egg vehicles and car rentals, which helped the company raise net income in the second quarter. The company had net income of 190 million reais from April to June, growth of about 34% on the result of a year earlier. Without including the effects of adopting the IFRS 16 accounting standard, Localiza had net income of 191.4 million reais. Analysts, on average, expected net income of 205.5 million reais for Localiza in the period, according to data from Refinitiv. The profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) reached almost half a billion reais, growth of about 44% on the annual basis. A year earlier, the truckers ' strike had reached the company's results. Without the adjustments of IFRS 16, the line corresponded to 466.4 million reais, before an average estimate of 476.5 million analysts. Localiza reported growths of 29% in the average fleet rented in the car rental division and 26% in the fleet management area. In the half-egg segment, car sales rose 40%. The company also finished the semester with a fleet of 276,804 cars, a growth of 32,7% on the volume of the second quarter of 2018, corroborating the strong increase in direct sales of vehicle automakers in the country in the first half of the year. Earlier, the association of dealers, Fenabrave, reported that new vehicle sales in Brazil from January to July grew 12.1% over a year earlier, to 1,550,000 units. The entity cited that this type of sale, which is usually done directly by the automakers to customers and offering discounts in the face of the largest volumes involved, represented 45.11% of the car and light commercial companies before the participation of 40.93% In the same period of 2018. The net debt to EBITDA ratio of Localiza ended the semester at 2.3 times without considering the effects of IFRS 16 before 3.3 times at the end of 2018.