Sunbelt Rentals Holdings is no longer a London-listed British parent running a mostly American rental fleet. The February scheme of arrangement put a Delaware holding company on the New York Stock Exchange, and the first full quarter after that listing is the first clean look at whether Specialty mix, mega-project density, and a new modular platform can outrun the margin gravity that defined last fiscal year. The debate is not whether the network is large. The debate is whether the acceleration is durable once a one-off tournament and a freshly closed acquisition drop out of the growth rate.
Rental revenue rose to a record $2,927 million. That is a twelve percent lift, but roughly a hundred basis points came from Reliant Asset Management, the modular specialist bought on the first of May under the Aries brand, and management estimates the FIFA World Cup added about two hundred fifty basis points. Strip those two items and the remaining print is still a genuine acceleration versus last year's mid-single-digit rental slog, led by Specialty rental up a quarter and General Tool up high single digits. Adjusted EBITDA still grew, yet the margin slipped a full point because ancillary mix outran rate. That is the tension the equity has to live with.
The company raised full-year rental growth into a seven-to-ten percent band and lifted adjusted EBITDA into a band around $5 billion, while also lifting net fleet spending. Free cash flow in the quarter collapsed versus the year-ago period as rental purchases nearly doubled. Shares in the low seventies capitalize the franchise at roughly $30 billion, a mid-teens forward earnings multiple that already bakes in a cleaner second half. The open question is whether Specialty dollar utilization stays elevated after the tournament and whether local non-residential construction, still the quieter part of the book, starts to participate.