Element Fleet Management Q1 2026 Earnings Report

Element Fleet Management EPS Results

• Actual EPS: C$0.49
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Element Fleet Management Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $879.58 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Element Fleet Management Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2026
• Date: 5/6/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, May 7, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 8:00AM ET

Element Financial separated into two independent public companies in October 2016. The former company now consists of Element Fleet Management (TSE:EFN), a global fleet management company, and ECN Capital, a commercial finance company. Element Fleet Management provides management services and financing for commercial vehicle and equipment fleets. The company's suite of fleet management services deals with acquisition and financing, to program management and remarketing. ECN Capital operates across North America in three verticals of the equipment finance market: commercial and vendor finance, rail finance, and commercial aviation finance. Element Fleet Management represented the majority of the company's business prior to its separation into two companies.

Element Fleet Management Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Record Q1 results: Net revenue of $324 million (+17% YoY), adjusted EPS $0.35, adjusted free cash flow per share $0.45 and a record ROE of 20.3%, underscoring strong earnings and cash generation.
• Positive Sentiment: Commercial momentum and retention: Added 44 new clients, ~173 additional service enrollments and delivered 98% client revenue retention, while Strategic Advisory Services identified ~$354 million in client savings (half actioned in Q1).
• Positive Sentiment: Digital and mobility initiatives advancing: Element ONE, Nova AI vehicle-ordering agent, driver app (resolving 53% of chats) and Car IQ integration are live or in pilots with early demand exceeding expectations and initial fuel cost savings for clients.
• Neutral Sentiment: Originations timing vs. growth: Originations were $1.5 billion (‑4% YoY) primarily due to one client moving from originate-to-syndicate and some order timing shifts (≈40% of Q4 orders still to activate); company left 2026 guidance unchanged.
• Negative Sentiment: Expense and credit pressures: Operating expenses rose 13% (driven by Car IQ headcount, higher compensation +20%, inflation and depreciation) and a $4.6 million provision for one client increased the allowance to $15.3 million (≈20 bps), creating near-term cost and credit headwinds.

Presentation

[Operator]

Everyone, welcome to Element Fleet Management's first quarter 2026 financial and operating results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode, and you are reminded that this call is being recorded. Following the prepared remarks, there will be an opportunity for analysts to ask questions. To join the question queue, press star then the digit one on your telephone keypad. In the event you should need assistance during the call today, you may signal for an operator by pressing star and then zero. Element wishes to caution listeners today that today's information contains forward-looking statements. The assumptions on which they're based and the material risks and uncertainties that could cause them to differ are outlined in the company's year-end and most recent MD&A and AIF. Management believes that the expectations expressed in the statements are reasonable, actual results could differ materially.

[Operator]

The company also reminds listeners that today's call references certain non-GAAP and supplemental financial measures. Management measures performance on reported and adjusted basis and considers both to be useful in providing readers with a better understanding of how it assesses results. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to IFRS measures can be found in the company's most recent MD&A. I would now like to turn the call over to Laura Dottori-Attanasio, Attanasio rather, Chief Executive Officer. Welcome. The floor is yours.

[Laura Dottori-Attanasio, CEO at Element Fleet Management]

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. I'm pleased to report Element delivered a strong start to 2026, building on the record performance we achieved in 2025. In the first quarter, we generated record net revenue of $324 million, up 17% year-over-year, and we delivered record adjusted earnings per share and free cash flow per share. Our return on equity reached 20.3%, the highest level we have ever achieved. These results reflect consistent execution across our business and the strength of our client relationships. They also reflect the ongoing investments we continue to make to advance our key focus areas, including digitization, mobility, and efficiency. Commercial momentum remains strong in the quarter. We added 44 new clients, with about one-third of those wins coming from self-managed conversions.

[Laura Dottori-Attanasio, CEO at Element Fleet Management]

We also continued to expand within our existing base through 173 additional service enrollments. Our client revenue retention was 98%, underscoring the quality of our relationships, and our Strategic Advisory Services team identified roughly $354 million in savings opportunities for our clients, with about half of those actioned during the quarter. Digital transformation continues to be a key differentiator for Element and a central pillar of our long-term strategy. In vehicle acquisition, we made great progress with our new vehicle ordering system, including the introduction of our existing AI-powered agent, Nova. Nova's designed to provide greater transparency and support more informed decision-making as our clients identify the right vehicles for their needs. Select clients are already testing our platform, and we plan to roll it out to all clients in the coming months.

[Laura Dottori-Attanasio, CEO at Element Fleet Management]

We have Element ONE for Drivers, our driver app that we released in 2025. That continues to see growing adoption, supporting a more streamlined experience for drivers and day-to-day fleet interactions. This quarter, we implemented an AI support agent within the platform to help resolve support requests, and it can now resolve 53% of client chats, driving improved response times and service consistency. In parallel, we're quickly advancing our Element ONE client portal, which we expect to launch later this year. It will serve as a more comprehensive digital front door or a single pane of glass for our clients to control their entire fleets from one platform. As you know, last year, we acquired Car IQ to add embedded vehicle-initiated payment capabilities, and we closed that transaction on December 31st. I'm happy to report that the integration is progressing well.

[Laura Dottori-Attanasio, CEO at Element Fleet Management]

Early client feedback has been positive. We're seeing demand that exceeds our expectations. Early use cases for fuel are delivering measurable cost savings for our clients, and over time, we expect vehicle-initiated payments to be an important addition to the Element offering and a meaningful driver of future revenue growth through enhanced monetization. While it's still early days for these important initiatives, they are already helping simplify the client experience and are expected to drive efficiency across our operations over time. We continue to build a business focused on growth and long-term value, and we're pleased with how the year has started as we continue to execute against our strategic priorities of delivering consistent growth, advancing our digital agenda, and maintaining a disciplined approach in all that we do. With that, I'll turn it over to Heath to take you through the financials.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

Thank you, Laura. Good morning, everyone. We delivered record financial results across several key metrics in the first quarter, including net revenue of $324 million, adjusted operating income of $182 million, adjusted earnings per share of $0.35, and adjusted free cash flow per share of $0.45. Our performance reflects the stability of the business and the continued momentum across key drivers. I will now begin by reviewing our first quarter results on an adjusted basis. Starting with net revenue, we generated $324 million in Q1, up 17% year-over-year with growth across all revenue components. Services revenue was $162 million in the quarter, up 6% year-over-year, driven by continued growth in vehicles under management, which increased 3%.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

Turning to net financing revenue, we generated $138 million in the quarter. This reflects growth in net earning assets, continued benefits from our leasing initiatives and higher gain on sale, partly offset by increased provision for credit losses related to a specific client item. More broadly, net financing revenue remains a key driver of growth, supported by a core NFR yield of 4.98%, representing 40 basis points of expansion compared to Q1 2025. Syndication volume was $867 million in the quarter and generated $24 million in revenue, up from $12 million a year ago.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

This resulted in a syndication yield of 2.8%, an increase of 70 basis points year-over-year, with revenue growth underpinned by the combination of higher volumes, the reinstatement of bonus depreciation, a favorable client mix and strong investor demand across our syndication channels. In the quarter, originations were $1.5 billion, down 4% year-over-year, and primarily reflecting the expected reduction in volume from an originate to syndicate client. Excluding this impact, Q1 underlying demand in our origination volume remained solid and was supported by a robust 26% lift in Mexico and our continued conversion of strong order volumes in Q4. Operating expenses in the first quarter were $142 million, up 13% year-over-year.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

This increase was primarily driven by incremental headcount associated with the Car IQ acquisition, as well as inflation, higher depreciation, and our continued investment in new initiatives. We remain disciplined to managing expense growth and continue to focus on driving efficiencies as the business scales, which supported positive operating leverage of 3.9% in the quarter. From an operating margin perspective, we delivered 56.2% in the first quarter, up from 54.7% in the prior year. This performance helped to drive a record return on equity of 20.3%, up 360 basis points year-over-year, reflecting both our strong earnings growth and continued balance sheet efficiency. Free cash flow remains a key strength of Element and continues to support both business reinvestment and capital returns to shareholders.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

In the first quarter, we generated $0.45 of free cash flow per share, up 25% year-over-year. Consistent with our capital allocation priorities, we returned approximately $94 million to shareholders during the quarter, including $57 million used to repurchase 2.3 million common shares. Turning to the balance sheet, our debt to capital ratio ended March at 76.4% within our targeted range of 73%-77%, reflecting continued discipline in how we fund our growth. Overall, we are pleased with the strong start to the year. Our performance in the quarter reflects the resilience of our business model throughout market conditions and positions us well to deliver consistent execution and growth through the balance of 2026. Thank you. Operator, we are now ready to take questions.

[Operator]

To our audience joining today over the phones at this time, if you would like to ask a question, simply press star followed by the digit one on your telephone keypad. Pressing star one will place your line into a queue, and I will open your lines in turn, and you will be invited to pose your question. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, that is star and one. We will hear first from John Aiken at Jefferies. Please go ahead.

[John Aiken, Analyst at Jefferies]

Good morning. Laura, post the meltdown in February with the market being concerned about AI disruption, I've had a lot of discussions with clients about your business operations specifically. Can you talk about what the potential threat for disintermediation from AI or Fintech startups are to your operations and how you plan to defend against that?

[Laura Dottori-Attanasio, CEO at Element Fleet Management]

Yeah. Thanks, John. Absolutely. I guess to that, I'll, before I just go into the AI piece, which I do see as a clear opportunity for Element, probably worth talking a bit about, if I could say the great moat that we have that we seem to be forgetting about, that is, our lease, leasing capabilities. Those are, as you know, almost half of our business. If you take that combined with our scale, our large network of suppliers, including the operational expertise that we have, we have a very solid moat. As you know, we've been making all of the investments that are required, including the acquisition of Car IQ.

[Laura Dottori-Attanasio, CEO at Element Fleet Management]

That was to allow us to digitize, to automate, and to create the ecosystem that we have that has been, I'd say, somewhat traditional, and then putting it all into a digital environment with Element ONE that I talked about in my prepared remarks. I'd say we're moving at a really good pace, and we're well-positioned to thrive in the AI environment. I did in my prepared remarks share some of the things that we're doing from an AI perspective. As you know, what we do is built around managing a whole lot of complexity and at scale.

[Laura Dottori-Attanasio, CEO at Element Fleet Management]

I believe that this is just gonna help make our ecosystem even better. It's gonna help us. We're seeing that already with one of the examples I provided. As we roll this out, it's gonna help us respond faster to our clients. It's gonna allow us to predict issues earlier. We're furthering the automation of what I'd say routine work that we've been doing manually, improving decision-making. Again, the whole bit, creating a better experience for our clients. I do see it as a positive. I don't believe it's gonna replace the need for a scaled fleet manager. In fact, I'd go as far as to say I think it's gonna increase the value of a partner like us that has the data, the relationships, and that workflow integration and the operational scale so that we can apply it practically.

[Laura Dottori-Attanasio, CEO at Element Fleet Management]

I know we're going to talk about expenses, and people feel they're high, and everyone wants us to have higher operating margins, which we do too, and we are working towards. As I did mention, I'm gonna say in my prepared remarks, like there is a lot of complexity at how you bring your AI agents, you build them out, you bring them together, and you have to do that in a very thoughtful way to make sure it's done right. So we do have important initiatives underway, and they will drive efficiency across our operations, but that will take time. It doesn't happen in a quarter. I think it's important to remember that, again, when I think of AI, I just think there's always gonna be things that we're seeing in the market.

[Laura Dottori-Attanasio, CEO at Element Fleet Management]

The differentiator is really not, you know, who can demonstrate, "Ooh, look at me, I got the first agent first or technology." It's really gonna be for us, who can deploy it into enterprise fleet operations, so at scale, and then deliver those measurable outcomes. I think we're really well-positioned based on not just the investments we made, but the work that we're doing. I'll just say it's gonna take a little more time than I think everyone would like because we wanna make sure when we do it, we do it right, and our clients get a better experience and no bumpiness between implementation and delivery of our new tools.

[John Aiken, Analyst at Jefferies]

Thanks, Laura. I'm glad I didn't misrepresent your position. I'll read you. Thank you.

[Operator]

We'll hear next from Stephen Boland at Raymond James.

[Stephen Boland, Analyst at Raymond James]

It seems, you know, I guess your prepared remark saying there's like one client, origination to syndication that kinda cut off. It seems, you know, materially, you know, Like, are the originations really dependent on that one client for the decline? Like, I'm just trying to get an idea. It seems, like, very dependent on one client. What about the rest of your clients and their activity? Are you seeing, you know, originations maybe just delayed for a quarter? Maybe just talk about that, please.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

Yeah. Good morning, Steve. You actually cut out a little bit at the start there, I believe your question was around the origination. Happy to give a bit of color in terms of what we're seeing. For Q1, we did see a strong sequential pickup in origination. $1.5 billion, up 8% quarter-over-quarter. And actually one of the better sequential increases we've delivered to start a new year. And that really follows the record order volume of $2 billion in Q4 of 2025. I would say that a portion of these orders are still converting. We've got approximately 40% of those orders still to be activated in incoming quarters.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

From a year-over-year perspective, originations were down 4%, and that was primarily related to the reduction of an originate to syndicate client. Having said that, though, we are seeing some timing shifts in client ordering, just given the current macro environment, with certain clients opting to push orders later into the year. That's sort of different from this time last year, where we actually saw some pull forward of activity as clients sought to get ahead of potential tariff-related price increases. You know, that dynamic, along with the reduction of the originate to syndicate client, will likely carry into Q2. This is an area we're focused on. We're focused on driving orders, accelerating originations throughout the balance of the year.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

Importantly, we don't expect the timing of orders to have a material impact on our ability to deliver revenue and adjusted operating income growth. That's reflected in Q1, where we delivered record results across both metrics.

[Stephen Boland, Analyst at Raymond James]

Okay. My second question is definitely on the service revenue. When I look at that waterfall, the sequential from Q4 to Q1, it is flat. The one metric in there is the utilization decline. I am just curious, is that because of clients that are gone or have left the company, or is it something that clients have basically pulled back on services? I am just trying to understand the metric there.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

Yeah. From a service revenue perspective, we were down $1 million quarter-on-quarter. That's standard. We do see some seasonality with Q4 always being the higher quarter of service revenue. There's some higher utilization in that quarter, where clients change over winter tires and those sorts of things. That decrease of $1 million and lower utilization is seasonality. From a year-over-year perspective, service revenue was up 6%, we were pleased with the re-acceleration of service revenue growth. That was really on the back of the resumption of VUM growth that we saw in the back part of last year.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

We're not seeing clients reducing services or anything like that. That was seasonality from a quarter-over-quarter perspective. The growth really comes from continued VUM growth, increasing product penetration across our existing client base, and then the expansion of our service offering with things like Car IQ that we're bringing into the platform. Looking ahead, we expect there will be a convergence in growth rates across the different revenue lines. That's really a function of the different profiles. We saw strong financing income and syndication income in Q1, really driven by factors that began in the back half of last year. On the services side, growth does tend to lag VUM onboarding.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

If you bring in VUM late in the quarter, the impact of the revenue is almost is low. You generally drive the product penetration into those VUM over time as well. We expect that the services will grow over time.

[Stephen Boland, Analyst at Raymond James]

Okay. Thanks very much.

[Operator]

Our next question will come from Bart Dziarski at RBC Capital Markets.

[Bart Dziarski, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets]

Great, thanks, and good morning, everyone. Wanted to ask around the higher PCL you called out related to a client item. Could you just give us a bit more details on what drove that, and maybe more importantly, how comfortable you are at the current provisioning levels?

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

Yeah, absolutely. Morning, Bart. In Q1, we did record a credit loss provision of $4.6 million, which brings our total allowance to $15.3 million, which is about 20 basis points of financing receivables. The increase is a single client item. It's not a broad-based change in credit performance across the portfolio. As we've scaled and standardized our leasing operations, we've certainly maintained a disciplined approach to underwriting and monitoring, and there's been no change in our risk appetite or underwriting discipline. It was one client, and it's the same client exposure that we identified and provisioned for in Q4. As such, over the past two quarters, we've taken a conservative approach and provided for the bulk of this position.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

While there's a small remaining portion, and we'll continue to assess that through the coming quarters, we do view our overall credit performance as stable, with no change to our overall sort of outlook for credit quality. Importantly, our NFI yield of 4.98% this quarter includes that provision, and would have been 15 basis points higher. We're, you know, confident in our, in our portfolio and it remains strong.

[Bart Dziarski, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets]

Okay. Got it. Thanks for that, Heath. Super helpful. Just to follow up on the origination question. You know, last quarter you talked about $2 billion of orders and then a modest extension in the order to delivery cycle time. Could you just walk us through the timeline now of what that order to delivery cycle time look like, what the order level was for Q1 2026, and maybe tie that all into how you're feeling about the originations guidance for 2026 of $6.5 billion-$6.9 billion. Thanks.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

Yeah, no problem. In terms of the order to delivery cycle time, there's been no sort of material change for that in the quarter. We generally see it depends on whether the vehicles have upfit or not upfit. It's anywhere sort of from 130 days to 250 days. That's why we do have 40% of those originations to still to come. In terms of the orders for Q1, they were approximately $1.5 billion for Q1. And as I said, we did see some delays with certain clients pushing orders into the later part of the year. In terms of guidance, we're pleased with the start of the year overall.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

We delivered strong results and it does show the earnings power of our business. That said, it's early in the year, so we're not in, we wouldn't be changing guidance at this point. We continue to focus on execution, especially around originations and services. We would update our guidance later in the year if we thought we needed to.

[Bart Dziarski, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets]

Great. Thanks for that. Super helpful.

[Operator]

Our next question will come from Jaeme Gloyn at National Bank Capital Markets.

[Jaeme Gloyn, Analyst at National Bank Capital Markets]

Yeah, good morning. Question on new funding structures. It looks like there's been some one-time costs over the last couple of quarters, totaling about $6 million related to the development of these new funding structures. Can you give us maybe a little bit of a preview of what's to come given, you know, given these charges and what can we expect here in the near term?

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

Yeah, absolutely. Morning, Jaeme. As part of our continued focus on our capital light business strategy, funding flexibility is a key component of that model. We do have already a well-diversified, cost-efficient funding platform. As part of that strategy, we're always looking to advance our off-balance sheet funding. And that's not to replace, but rather to supplement our existing tools, whether it's syndication or other off-balance sheet approaches. The objective really here is to increase our flexibility to support growth and supporting returns without materially increasing our leverage. We have been working and investing in this area and taking some costs in the last few quarters. We've made strong progress and we've moved into an advanced stage.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

Our intent is to provide an update once we've finalized the structure and completed the transaction.

[Jaeme Gloyn, Analyst at National Bank Capital Markets]

Okay. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

We will hear next from Paul Holden at CIBC.

[Paul Holden, Analyst at CIBC]

Thank you. Good morning. Good to be back on the call this morning. I have a few questions for you. Maybe first one, just to follow up on the discussion around originations. First part of the question would be, was that roll-off of the originate to syndicate revenue incorporated into the 2026 guidance when you provided it? Two, just wanna go back. I think, Heath, you sort of inferred that maybe that roll-off, that client and some delayed activations could also impact Q2 origination. Just wanna clarify that, I guess that suggests sort of we should be expecting better year-over-year growth in sort of Q3 and Q4.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

Yeah, absolutely. As part of the evolution of our leasing strategy, we've been optimizing the composition of our portfolio. Without getting into client-specific details, the originate to syndicate client is a single product relationship, so no services. Origination volumes were elevated in prior periods, they're now normalizing as the program matures. We were expecting that as part of our originations guidance for 2026. What we did see in the quarter was, as I said, some shift in client ordering just given the macroeconomic environment, with certain clients pushing orders later into the year. That may impact our originations number for Q2.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

We're really focused on driving orders to converting to originations for the back half of the year.

[Paul Holden, Analyst at CIBC]

Okay. Okay, I got it. Question on the service revenue. Obviously you've made it clear that you want that to grow at somewhat a higher rate. I guess one of the things we haven't discussed on it 'cause we don't see it is the margin embedded in that revenue. I know it's a net number. Is there anything that's changed in terms of the margins or costs that are incorporated into that line? Or is this really more of a just it's the top line has slowed and you expect that to resume? Or is there any kind of margin story here?

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

In terms of the service revenue and products that we offer, there's been no change in the margins that are embedded in that number. There's no change in the margins. You recall in the first half of 2025, with the tariffs and the trade, we did have a slow start to the year from a VUM growth. That's now resumed. We saw service revenue re-accelerating in Q1, up 6%, following the previous 1%. Really it's just about driving the VUM growth, driving the product penetration, and then implementing the new products such as Car IQ that we've acquired.

[Paul Holden, Analyst at CIBC]

Okay. Okay. Understood. Thank you. Last question. I guess there was an update from Amazon. I can't remember. It was earlier this week or last week. I think earlier this week. There's been a number of client questions around that and if there's potential disruption for Element or not. Be great to get your thoughts on that.

[Laura Dottori-Attanasio, CEO at Element Fleet Management]

Thanks for that question, Paul. We do see that announcement as a net positive for Element. For them, it's primarily about improving utilization of their existing logistics network, not replacing the last mile delivery structure. If the initiative that they have underway actually works, the expectation is that's gonna drive more volume through the last mile network. That would mean more utilization, more capacity needs, and essentially more demand for the fleet management services that we provide. That's why we see this as a net positive for Element. I go a little further now that I have the mic to say as a validation as well of our mobility operations solutions. We do excel in last mile delivery, what we call our mobility operations solutions now.

[Laura Dottori-Attanasio, CEO at Element Fleet Management]

We believe this places us quite well.

[Paul Holden, Analyst at CIBC]

Okay. That's helpful. Thanks. Thanks for that. Last one for me is just on expense growth through rate, Laura. We're gonna talk about expenses 'cause it is a little bit higher for the year. Can you talk to us like, is this a similar growth rate we should expect through the rest of the year? I also note, specifically, employee compensation is up 20% year-over-year. It looks like almost all of the year-over-year growth is from that line. Why is employee comp up as much as it is? Maybe talk to us about sort of the growth in FTE versus wage inflation and where that growth in FTE is coming from beyond Car IQ.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

Yeah, no problem. I'll take that one. In terms of the expenses for the quarter, it was up 13%, $142 million. The increase was driven by incremental headcount and costs associated with the Car IQ acquisition, as well as inflation and higher depreciation. However, we do continue to reinvest a portion of our growth into key initiatives, so digitization, automation, new products. These initiatives are intended to drive future revenue and also improve efficiency over time. I think as sort of Laura alluded to earlier, while these programs carry upfront investment, before the sort of scale benefits are realized, we are being disciplined in our implementation.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

We're making sure these new capabilities are fully integrated and operated as intended before we pursue more aggressive cost actions. That's really in the lens of client experience. It's important for us to make sure we're delivering strong client experience. That's what's driving the expense growth for Q1. What I would say is, even with that investment, we delivered positive operating leverage of 3.9%. Our margin is up 56.2%, up from 54.7% a year ago. In terms of your question about expense growth rate going forward, looking forward, we do expect the expense growth rate to moderate relative to Q1 levels. We remain focused on growing our revenue faster than the expenses. You have seen that in previous years.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

2023, 2024 expense growth was double-digit. It moderated to 7% in 2025. We expect the growth rates over the coming quarters to decline relative to Q1.

[Paul Holden, Analyst at CIBC]

Okay. Okay. That's good. I'll leave it there. Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question will come from Thomas MacKinnon at BMO Capital.

[Tom MacKinnon, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Yeah, thanks. Morning. Just a question on what we should be looking at. There's a lot of discussion on originations, but if I look in the way you put your slides together, you actually have vehicles under management before originations in your slideshow. Vehicles under management are up, but the originations were down. What do you guys deem as being the more important metric here?

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

Yeah. Good morning. Both important metrics. VUM is a metric that shows growth. Originations can be impacted by timing. If you have, if your VUM's up, you're either bringing in new clients or your existing clients are increasing the size of their fleet. That's why VUM growth, we were pleased with the VUM growth. Originations can be timing of replacement cycles of clients' fleets. If a client returns a vehicle and gets a new vehicle out, that doesn't drive growth, but it does drive origination. Both important metrics for us, I would view VUM as a core driver of growth.

[Tom MacKinnon, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Why didn't you give guidance on VUM as opposed to originations, if it's origination stuff is harder to pinpoint?

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

Yeah. Originations is still a key metric that then flows into your net earning assets. Net earning assets combined with the yield will drive the financing revenue as well as what's available to syndicate. We still see originations as a really key metric. From a VUM perspective, we've always targeted to 2%-4% VUM growth.

[Tom MacKinnon, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Okay. One final one. If I look at the services per VUM, been kind of sitting around 3.7 for some time right now. How do you see that trending? What can you do to increase that? Some thoughts around that.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

Yeah. It's absolutely a key focus for us. In terms of that metric, what often happens and what you've seen in the last couple of quarters is often you'll bring in a new client, and they'll have a lower service revenue number to begin with, and you have seen that in the last couple of quarters, which dilutes the average per se. Then as you build that relationship with the client over time, you then drive more services into the portfolio. Really for us, our focus is the execution side of things, making sure we've got strong client experience, strong client relationships, and driving further product penetration.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

Additionally, it's making sure that we have really good best-in-market products, such as our payments business through Car IQ, which will have, you know, ideally have strong uptake from our client base to continue to drive that number higher.

[Tom MacKinnon, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Is the Car IQ into this VUM, into this services per VUM? Is that included in there? Probably not now since it's just new.

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

No, it's not. That services per VUM number is our top nine products in the USA and Canada.

[Tom MacKinnon, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Okay. One final one is the buybacks picked up. I think you're running almost twice the rate in this quarter, in the first quarter than you were, just in terms of number of shares than you were in the fourth quarter or significantly higher and certainly higher than the third. You got a lot of room in this NCIB. What can you say about share buybacks, especially where your stock is now?

[Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO at Element Fleet Management]

I'd say nothing has changed in terms of our overarching focus from a finance perspective. We've always targeted growing revenue over the longer term at 6%-8%. Obviously, we're gonna deliver stronger than that in 2026. We look to drive revenue faster than expenses, and then we look to buy back anywhere from 1%-2% of our stock. Given that there has been some volatility in the markets, we do like to step in when that happens.

[Tom MacKinnon, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Okay, thanks.

[Operator]

A reminder to our phone audience today, if you'd like to ask a question or have a follow-up, that is star and one on your telephone keypad. We'll go to Graham Ryding at TD Securities.

[Graham Ryding, Analyst at TD Securities]

Hi, good morning. Maybe a question for Laura. Just Element Mobility. It's sort of been an area that you've been investing in and deliberately trying to build out. Is there anything you can point to to date as evidence that, you know, this investment is starting to translate into revenue growth? Is the benefit to date, you know, more about customer retention and operating efficiencies?

[Laura Dottori-Attanasio, CEO at Element Fleet Management]

Thanks, Graham. I'd say all of the above. I know that's a bit of a broad answer. All of the above in terms of the things we've talked about with our ability to transform how we're doing business. You know, we've talked about this in the past, that the fleet industry is undergoing some really rapid transformation. When I think of, you know, historically how things were focused more on, I wanna say, vehicle financing, traditional services, we do see that the model is evolving fast. We're seeing it even more so today. We were talking about AI just a little bit earlier. That was why we went out. We acquired Autofleet to help us really evolve our strategy and our ability to execute.

[Laura Dottori-Attanasio, CEO at Element Fleet Management]

That Element Mobility division, if you will, that we talk about, was really meant to drive that innovation across everything that we do. You have seen some of it already. Again, I know, everyone expects ourselves as well, and we're working towards that to take expenses down further, as we roll these things out and scale. It will allow not just for us to continue with solid client retention, but it should also provide some new revenue unlocks, and I think just help us continue to drive value creation. As a reminder, under that mobility umbrella, you know, we have things like Autofleet, still relatively new. We acquired them back in October of 2024, and so not that long ago, and we've made phenomenal progress from my perspective.

[Laura Dottori-Attanasio, CEO at Element Fleet Management]

Car IQ, another one, very timely acquisition when you think of how that could decrease fuel spend for our clients by call it about 10% on average. Pretty timely. That also gives us some great ability from a payments capability, not just for our clients, but for ourselves. All of that along with our innovation lab, and as we talked about, that's sort of focused on the technologies, so autonomous vehicles, robotics, AI, and we've already rolled some out, and Autofleet came with Nova, which already had AI embedded in it. All of that I really do believe is gonna transform how we manage our business and how we can deliver better service to our clients.

[Laura Dottori-Attanasio, CEO at Element Fleet Management]

Now again, some of which you're seeing, and I think as time goes on, you're going to see more of that over time. I don't have numbers to give you, but it should represent in more revenue and in decreased costs over time.

[Graham Ryding, Analyst at TD Securities]

Okay, great. That's it for me. Thank you.

[Operator]

We have no further signals from our audience members today. I'm happy to turn the floor back over to our President and CEO, Ms. Dottori-Attanasio, for any additional or closing remarks.

[Laura Dottori-Attanasio, CEO at Element Fleet Management]

All right. Thank you, operator. Thank you all for joining us today. As we share, we remain confident in the trajectory of our business. We remain confident in our ability to deliver for our clients and for our shareholders. We do continue to see strong engagement from our clients and our team members. We want to thank for all of their hard work in making this all happen and to share with you that we remain very focused on advancing our strategic initiatives in 2026. With that, we look forward to speaking with you again in August for our second quarter earnings call. Thank you.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude Element's Q1 earnings call, and we thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines, and we hope that you enjoy the rest of your day.

Participants

Executives

• Heath Valkenburg, EVP and CFO
• Laura Dottori-Attanasio, CEO

Analysts

• Bart Dziarski, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets
• Graham Ryding, Analyst at TD Securities
• Jaeme Gloyn, Analyst at National Bank Capital Markets
• John Aiken, Analyst at Jefferies
• Paul Holden, Analyst at CIBC
• Stephen Boland, Analyst at Raymond James
• Tom MacKinnon, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets