Localiza Rent a Car S.A

What it is

Localiza rents cars by the day to travellers and manages long-term fleets for companies that prefer not to own their vehicles. It rents cars to individuals, manages corporate car fleets, sells its decommissioned fleet, and operates a franchise business.

The third leg is just as important: it sells the used cars its fleet retires. The used-car division sold over 296,000 cars in 2025.

The network is now regional. By 2025 the company was present in seven Latin American countries, and its network grew from 602 branches in 2019 to 935 physical points by September 2025, much of it from the 2022 merger with rival Unidas.

Who owns it

This is a family-controlled company. It is controlled by its four founding executives — José Salim Mattar Júnior, Eugênio Pacelli Mattar, Antônio Cláudio Brandão Resende and Flávio Brandão Resende — who represent the founding Mattar and Brandão families and together hold a controlling stake above 50%.

The rest sits largely with professional investors: about 81% of shares are held by institutions, with around 18% held by insiders, according to the structured data. It trades in B3’s Novo Mercado segment, which requires one-share-one-vote, equal sale rights for all shareholders, and a minimum 25% free float.

Who runs it

The day-to-day boss is Bruno Lasansky. From 2016 he became part of the executive body, first running the car-rental division and then as chief operating officer, before becoming chief executive of Localiza Rent a Car S.A. He took the top job in 2021.

Co-founder Eugênio Mattar moved up to chairman of the board when Lasansky was promoted. The money is run by Rodrigo Tavares Gonçalves de Sousa — currently the company’s chief financial officer and investor relations officer.

The money, in plain words

Sales are growing fast. Revenue reached R$41.78bn (US$8.11bn) in 2025, up from R$37.27bn (US$7.2 bn) the year before — a rise of about 12% (our calculation).

But it keeps thin slices of profit. Reported net profit was R$1.88bn (US$364m), just under 5 cents on every real of sales — a net profit margin of 4.5% (our calculation), normal for a business that must constantly buy and sell cars.

For every real owners put in, it earned about 8.5 back over the year — a return on equity of 8.5%, modest by its own past standards. The business runs on heavy borrowing: net debt was R$31.1bn (US$6.0 bn), up 3%, partly due to advance payments to carmakers.

Shareholders are paid well relative to the share price — a dividend yield of about 5.1%. The shares cost roughly 19 times yearly profit (a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.4), pricing in continued growth.

What it is doing now

Localiza is shrinking and refreshing its fleet rather than chasing size. The total fleet stood at 632,267 vehicles at the end of September 2025, slightly below a year earlier, reflecting a disciplined approach prioritising efficiency over volume.

It is also slimming down. In November 2025 it announced the sale of Voll, a travel-tech business it had invested in during 2021.

What to watch

A one-time tax charge masked a strong underlying year. Recurring net income rose 21.9% in the fourth quarter of 2025, while reported net income fell because of a roughly R$1bn (US$194 mn) non-cash deferred-tax charge tied to a tax-rate increase.

Competition is the live risk. The competitive environment in fleet rental remains challenging, with some players engaging in irrational pricing.

Watch whether returns recover toward the company’s historical levels.

This is news, not investment advice.