Valuation: KENDALL CARS LIMITED

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Kendall Cars operates a self-drive car, van and minibus rental business across 14 branches in London and the South East, including Heathrow and Gatwick airport delivery. Revenue is largely transactional daily or weekly hire, though the business also offers FlexiLease and contract hire arrangements for SME customers seeking longer-term solutions. The fleet comprises over 1,500 vehicles and the company employs approximately 98 staff.

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The UK vehicle rental market, covering self-drive cars, vans and minibuses, is estimated at £4bn to £5bn annually, growing at roughly 3 to 5% per year as corporate mobility budgets shift from ownership to usage. These figures are estimates drawn from industry commentary. Demand is driven by cost-conscious SMEs preferring hire over lease or purchase, airport travellers, and tradespeople needing vans for short-term projects. The market is fragmented: Enterprise, Hertz and Europcar dominate airport and national corporate accounts, but hundreds of regional independents compete on price, convenience and local relationships. Consolidation is steady; larger groups have acquired regional fleets to add branch density and improve utilisation. The next three to five years favour operators with modern, lower-emission fleets, app-based booking and strong business-account bases, while the structural risk is EV transition capex and residual value uncertainty on internal combustion vehicles. For a seller today this means acquirers, both trade and PE-backed platforms, are actively seeking well-run regional fleets with scale and a modern vehicle mix, and the window is open while multiples remain supported by roll-up activity.

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• Enterprise Rent-A-Car – UK market leader with overlapping South East branches
• Europcar Mobility Group – Airport presence at Heathrow and Gatwick competes directly
• Arnold Clark Rental – Expanding southern branch network and van focus
• Northgate Vehicle Hire – Strong in light commercial and FlexiLease-style contracts
• Practical Car & Van Rental – Franchise network competing in same Surrey corridor

(Inferred from market knowledge; none explicitly named in sources.)

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Most recent filed accounts: FY2025, made up to 31 January 2025. Data is roughly six months old, so valuation proceeds on the filed year without roll-forward.

Reconstructed profit and loss, GBP, figures marked (est.) are derived

• EBITDA
• Additional gross profit
• Cost of sales to total revenue

£14.2m

£8.7m

£13.5m

£7.1m

FY2024 (est.)

GP £5.1m · EBITDA £8.7m

99 employees

FY2025 (est.)

GP £3.1m · EBITDA £7.1m

98 employees

Basis: Revenue and gross profit are filed figures (full statutory accounts, FRS 102). EBITDA is estimated by adding back depreciation of £5.0m (FY2025) and £4.6m (FY2024) to operating profit of £2.1m and £4.1m respectively; these are filed figures. No EBITDA line is disclosed directly.

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Buyer notes: Cash of £2.4m and no disclosed long-term debt; however, the notes reveal a HSBC facility secured by fixed and floating charge (£537k drawn at year-end) plus an intercompany receivable of £873k owed by the parent C K 3 Limited and director loans payable of £1.7m. The director loans are interest-free and repayable on demand, so a buyer would treat them as debt-like items at completion. Fixed assets are almost entirely vehicles held on balance sheet, meaning enterprise value includes fleet; if fleet were carved out or leased, the EV would be materially lower and multiples would need adjustment. Working capital is light relative to revenue, typical for rental businesses with pre-paid deposits.

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Sector multiples: UK regional vehicle rental businesses typically trade at 4.0x to 6.5x EBITDA, depending on scale, fleet ownership structure, and recurring contract mix. Asset-light models (operating leases) attract higher multiples; asset-heavy models (owned fleet) attract lower headline multiples but larger enterprise values. At £13.5m revenue and £7.1m EBITDA, Kendall Cars sits comfortably at SME scale.

Precedent transaction: Northgate plc acquired Redde plc (2019) at an implied EV/EBITDA of c. 6x, though that deal combined insurance and fleet services. Regional independents typically transact at 5x to 6x where fleet is included. Source: https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/fleet-industry-news/2019/02/08/redde-and-northgate-merge

Operator scales applied: On our assumption of <0% revenue growth (FY2025 declined 5% YoY), 25%+ EBITDA margin (c. 53% on filed figures), moderate revenue volatility (±10%) and high capex intensity (>10% of revenue given fleet refreshment), the range sits mid-sector at 5.0x to 6.0x.

Indicative enterprise value: £7.1m × 5.0x = £35.5m; £7.1m × 6.0x = £42.6m. Rounded: £35m to £43m. Note that the £18m tangible asset base represents substantially the fleet itself; a buyer may structure this as an asset deal with separate fleet financing, which could rebase the multiple conversation.

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These bars are calibrated for UK SMEs and do not apply to midcap or larger businesses, where the thresholds are very different.

The metric that most limits the multiple today is negative revenue growth, which signals utilisation or pricing pressure and raises questions about fleet efficiency.

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The single highest-return action is demonstrating revenue stabilisation or growth in the next two reporting periods, because the recent 5% decline is the factor most likely to push buyers to the lower end of the multiple range.

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For the top-ranked route, a trade sale, the likely acquirers are either a large global rental group seeking to plug South East coverage or a PE-backed regional consolidator. Pursuing this route would mean approaching competitors confidentially through an adviser, a process that typically takes 6 to 12 months and yields the highest headline price, though the brand would likely be absorbed and family involvement would end within a year of completion.

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At your size expect a structured, competitive auction run by a larger corporate finance house, with full workstream due diligence and international buyers likely on the list. Allow around nine to fifteen months from starting properly to money in the bank.

At this size, process discipline is the value driver. A well run timetable with several credible bidders reaching binding offers on the same day is what produces a premium.