Ashtead have been a major beneficiary of a push to improve infrastructure in their key North American markets.
Ashtead’s US and Canadian segments saw their revenue and EBITDA jump as increased activity in major infrastructure projects drove strong performance at Ashtead’s plant hire business.
The US market – Ashtead’s largest – saw EBITDA surge to $1,998.2m in the first half, up from $1,567.1m in the same period a year ago.
Canada’s EBITDA rose to $129.4m from $118.7m. The UK business was the only disappointment with revenue and EBITDA falling in both dollar and sterling terms.
Ashtead’s shares have posted astronomical gains since the lows of the pandemic and today’s Ashtead shares were little changed after a strong run into results. Ashtead was trading at 5,087p at the time of writing, up 0.5%.
“Ashtead’s been able to brush aside inflationary pressures and deliver a strong first half with top and bottom-line growth. Better still for investors, full year guidance got a bump higher too as Ashtead’s end markets look robust in the face of wider economic uncertainty,” said Matt Britzman, Equity Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Ashtead’s largest market, the US, is benefiting from a host of fiscal policies aimed at improving infrastructure and supply chain resilience – Ashtead’s scale and expertise should place it well to be a key supplier. Inflation on a host of cost lines remains a challenge, but Ashtead has the scope to pass most of the pain onto its customers with higher rental rates on its $15bn rental fleet.”