Budget Saudi delayed sale of over 2,000 cars in 2022, deems apps as investment opportunities: CEO

Fawaz Danish, President and Group CEO of Budget Saudi

United International Transportation Co. (Budget Saudi) sold about 5,900 used cars in 2022, compared to 8,700 a year earlier, President and Group CEO, Fawaz Danish, told Argaam, ascribing the decline to higher utilization in the short-and-long-term rentals, and the lack of new alternatives.

The supply of new cars posed a challenge during the first eight months of 2022, but improved in the last quarter of the year, Danish said, expecting it to normalize in the second half of 2023.

He added that Budget Saudi pushed the sale of more than 2,000 cars back from 2022 to the current year, in addition to the used cars available for sale in 2023.  

Danish stressed that Budget Saudi does not export used cars, as local demand is strong and is also on the rise for the products of the company, which sells used cars while some are in the warranty period.  

Budget Saudi added more than 6,000 new cars to its fleet, bringing up its entire fleet to over 32,000 units in 2022, the highest level ever.

Moreover, the tourism and investment openness witnessed by the Kingdom reflected on the higher number of tourist arrivals. This, in turn, boosted the income of long-term rentals as contracts were increased and extended with the government and private sectors, seas well as the semi-governmental entities, which helped the company’s profit surge to a lifetime high.

Danish added that Budget Saudi deems the logistics services applications as possible investment opportunities that can be availed to support expansions and growth. The company has 5% interest in “Syarah” application for selling used cars in the Kingdom.

“Syarah is one of our clients that buys and sells Budget Saudi’s cars on the app,” Danish explained.