Good morning and welcome to Element Fleet Management's third quarter 2025 financial and operating results conference call. At this time, all participants are in 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 one on your telephone keypad. In the event you need assistance during the call, you may signal an operator by pressing star then zero. Element wishes to caution listeners that today's information contains forward-looking statements. The assumptions on which they are 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 annual information form. Although management believes that the expectations expressed in the statements are reasonable, actual results could differ materially.
The company also reminds listeners that today's call references certain Non-GAAP and supplemental financial measures. Management measures performance on a 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 at the company's most recent MD&A. I would now like to turn the call over to Laura Dottori-Attanasio, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Q3 was another strong quarter for Element, with double-digit net revenue growth year over year and record financial performance across key metrics. This outcome underscores the ongoing success of our strategy and the commitment of our team to deliver meaningful outcomes for our clients and shareholders. We deepened relationships with existing clients and won new mandates across all regions, adding 38 new clients in the third quarter and expanding share of wallet with 278 new service enrollments. As more clients turn to Element to unlock efficiencies, our strategic advisory services team delivered by identifying $349 million in fleet cost savings opportunities this quarter, 46% of which were actioned, demonstrating the tangible value that strengthens client loyalty. We continue to accelerate our digital transformation and deliver a more connected client experience.
Earlier this year, we launched a new Element mobile app, simplifying fleet operations and enhancing the driver experience. Pilot feedback has been extremely positive, and we're preparing for a broader rollout in the coming months. Our new digital ordering platform is also progressing well, marking an important step in automating key client processes. Since establishing Element Mobility, our division focused on next-gen fleet solutions, we've advanced partnerships that showcase our technology leadership. For example, we announced a new partnership with InDrive, one of the world's fastest-growing ride-hailing companies, to help optimize their fleet operations globally. This collaboration demonstrates how Element's digital capabilities and partnerships are shaping the future of intelligent mobility. Additionally, our technology platform, AutoFleet, earned industry recognition as Fleet Management Solution of the Year in the 2025 AutoTech Breakthrough Awards, a well-deserved honor highlighting our team's innovation and impact.
We passed the one-year milestone of our Dublin Leasing Center that was launched in August of 2024, and the results have been strong. By streamlining processes and automation, we've achieved greater efficiency and scalability in our leasing operations, enhancing the client experience and contributing to strong net financing revenue in recent quarters. This is a clear example of how our strategic initiatives like Dublin and AutoFleet are driving financial benefits and service improvements. In summary, we made exciting progress on the digital front, improving client experience and financial performance, all thanks to the dedication and collective effort of our global Element team. Our third-quarter achievements put us on solid footing to close out 2025 with continued strength. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Heath to cover our financial results.
Thank you, Laura, and good morning, everyone. Q3 marked another quarter of strong performance for Element and highlights the solid progress we've made on our strategic priorities in 2025. Notably, in the quarter, we delivered double-digit growth in net revenue, adjusted operating income, earnings per share, and free cash flow per share, and once again produced record results in each of these important metrics. With that, let's turn to our Q3 financials, which I will speak to on an adjusted basis. Net revenue reached $306 million, up 10% from last year, supported by strong contributions across all revenue categories. Services revenue was up 6% year over year, reaching $156 million. This growth is attributable to higher utilization from new and existing clients and solid growth in all of our geographies.
Net financing revenue grew 12% year over year to $130 million due to the combination of higher net earning assets in the U.S. and Mexico and the solid performance of our leasing portfolio. Results were further bolstered by funding efficiencies in the quarter, which absorbed the higher costs associated with our preferred share redemptions and AutoFleet acquisition. Continuing the momentum that has been demonstrated in 2025, our core NFR yield, which excludes gain on sale, expanded to 4.85% in Q3, up a further eight basis points quarter over quarter and 41 basis points year over year, highlighting the strong execution of our leasing business and funding initiatives. We syndicated $632 million of assets this quarter, down 37% from last year. Despite the reduction in volume, syndication revenue totaled $20 million and increased at 20% year over year.
Our syndication yield of 3.2% expanded more than 150 basis points versus last year, a reflection of the demand for our syndication products, favorable mix, and the benefits from the reinstatement of 100% bonus depreciation in July. We originated $1.7 billion of assets in the quarter, in line with the results from Q3 2024. The sequential dip in originations reflects normal seasonality tied to OEM retooling ahead of a new model year production in the U.S. and Canada. Importantly, originations in Mexico were at a record level of $342 million in the quarter, a clear reflection of the strength of our franchise in the country. Our momentum in vehicles under management resumed in Q3, with VUM increasing 1% quarter over quarter and 2% year over year, led by growth in the service under category. This increase is expected to further support services revenue in the coming quarters.
As Laura mentioned, new client acquisitions in the quarter were steady the last year, reflecting stable underlying demand that we expect will translate into higher order volumes ahead. Adjusted operating expenses remained well-contained at $129 million, flat quarter over quarter, and up 9% year over year, or 6% excluding AutoFleet. The year-over-year increase reflects continued investment into our business to advance our intelligent mobility ecosystem, enhance digital capabilities, and maintain our leadership position in the industry. This resulted in an adjusted operating margin of 58% and earnings per share of $0.33, with these key metrics expanding by 30 basis points and 14% year over year, respectively. We remain focused on driving internal efficiencies and sustaining positive operating leverage as our business continues to scale. In Q3, we generated an adjusted return on equity of 18.8%, up from 16.9% in 2024, demonstrating the continued progress of our capital-light strategy.
With respect to capital management, we returned $61 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during Q3. Year to date, we have repurchased 4.1 million common shares, representing $87 million of capital deployed. Looking ahead, we intend to renew our normal course issue of bid in 2026, reaffirming our commitment to returning capital to shareholders. These actions were underpinned by continued strong free cash flow generation, with adjusted free cash flow per share of $0.42, up a robust 17% year over year. Our ability to consistently generate growing free cash flow continues to support our reinvestment into the business and the ability to deliver meaningful return of capital to shareholders. As of September 30, our debt-to-capital ratio stood at 75.7%, well within our target range of 73-77%.
In summary, we delivered strong financial results this quarter, consisting of robust revenue growth, positive operating leverage, and record profitability. We are entering Q4 with positive momentum and a clear line of sight to finish 2025 at or above the high end of our guidance ranges in all metrics, with the exception of originations, as was communicated last quarter. We look forward to providing our 2026 financial guidance and dividend outlook alongside our Q4 results released in February. Thank you. Operator, we are now ready to take questions.
Analysts who wish to join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. We ask that you please limit yourself to two questions and then re-queue. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. Your first question comes from Stephen Boland with Raymond James. Please go ahead.
Thanks. I've said this a couple of times. I guess, you know, Jeff Quan, people move up the list here a little bit. Good morning. The first question is, Laura, you're usually pretty good about giving new client wins. You mentioned in the, I think it's in the deck, the conversions of self-administered fleets. I'm just wondering if you can give a little more details.
Yeah, absolutely, Steve. Thanks. As I mentioned, this quarter, we did see some great commercial traction. Once again, with 38 new clients and share of wallet, we had 278 new enrollments. We continue to go after the various segments that are in the self-managed space and winning market share. I'd say, once again, this quarter is pretty evenly mixed, where we're winning market share. It's about 50/50, again, this quarter, from winning market share and self-managed fleets. We're feeling good about not just what we've won, but the opportunities that are before us as well.
Okay, great. The second question is really on syndications. You know, a great return on the yield. I'm just curious about how you managed the syndication volumes this quarter. I mean, in the first half, you talked about deferring for the bonus depreciation to kick in. Could more have been done this quarter? I mean, are you managing the amount that you're doing right now, and should we expect, you know, a similar yield in Q4 and maybe volumes?
Yeah, good morning, Steve. Our approach to syndication remains unchanged. Primarily, we use syndication as a tool to manage our balance sheet. With our debt-to-capital metric coming in at 75.7%, which is right in the middle of our targeted range, we've syndicated enough to manage our balance sheet. What we do is we look to focus on optimizing economic value. You can see that with an increase in the yields in the assets that we hold on book, with the core yield being up 8% this quarter. Also, as you said, really strong syndication yields on the assets that we have syndicated. In terms of what's driven this, the higher yield, the demand for our product is still very, very strong.
The return of the bonus depreciation coming in clearly gave us an uptick on the yield, which we expect will continue on. There was also some product mix benefit that we had in the quarter.
Your next question comes from Jaeme Gloyn with National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. You know, good result on the net financing revenue yield. Just wanted to get maybe some of your perspectives on the sustainability. Can it continue to tick higher from here? You know, this is, I think, almost, if not the all-time high for this net interest margin, effectively. Just trying to get a sense as to where that could potentially go with some of the moving parts.
Yeah, good morning, Jaeme. You're correct in that the net financing revenue we delivered for the quarter was a record, and the yield is X, or on the core yield is a record. Excluding the impact of any gain on sale, we do see that there is further increase that we can drive through that number. The leasing business that we set up to maximize our returns continues to perform well. On the financing side of things, we continue to see opportunity for us to decrease our cost of funding as we continue to mature our platform. The Mexico business that grew strongly in the quarter had some strong yield as well, which drove that up. Really pleased with the result, and we expect that there is more to do on that line.
Okay, great. In terms of the order backlog shrinking this quarter, your commentary in the press release, you know, suggesting that you have pretty high confidence in client momentum coming back. What are some of the underlying, I don't know, metrics or drivers or conversations you're having that gives you that confidence that we'll see order volumes pick up in the upcoming quarters? Is that sort of timing like a 2026 event, or are you already seeing that flowing through today?
Yeah. In terms of the client order backlog, the reduction in Q3 is cyclical. We always see a reduction in Q3 with strong originations higher than orders, and that is with the OEM model changeover. We always see a drop in the order volume during that period in Q3, and then it does pick up in Q4. In terms of why we are confident of that to continue to expand, it is the comments from Laura at the top in terms of the new client wins. We saw VUM return to growth this quarter with a 1% increase in the quarter, a 2% increase year over year. Those things will combine to drive higher orders or see that order pick up in Q4.
Once again, analysts with any further questions may press the star key, then one. Your next question comes from Graham Ryding with TD Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Maybe I could start with just AutoFleet. Anything you can quantify around the potential impact here of that InDrive win, either revenue or just would you expect this to build over time? Maybe just commentary, you know, AutoFleet broadly. Are there some tangible sort of revenue contributions coming in from that acquisition now that you have that as a business more than one year?
Sure, Graham. Happy to take that one. I won't comment specifically on revenue per client, as we wouldn't normally do that. It is, I'd say, a great sign for us. I mean, from where I sit, it's like a proof point of how Element Mobility that we talked about last quarter is really going to allow us to, I'm going to say, broaden our scope beyond traditional fleet management. This will help strengthen us as a global leader in intelligent fleet management. From where I sit, it's going to help amplify, I'm going to say, our digital moat. That is good with InDrive, and we expect to see more of these types of things with Element Mobility or AutoFleet. For AutoFleet, it's been just a little over a year now that we acquired the team.
It really has been a home run for us, not only. For Element, we have been able to really move forward with more speed, more cost efficiency. It has been great as it relates to decreasing our costs of technological digitization automation advancement. That is a positive. For AutoFleet on its own, it is doing really well, not only with a win like InDrive, but others, that it is profitable on its own. We are very happy with where we are at and feeling very confident about where we can go together.
Okay, great. Maybe I could pivot to just the services revenue growth. You flagged that, you know, higher utilization in the quarter was driving some growth, but it seemed like growth from sort of VUM and penetration on the services side is not there right now. Maybe what do you see the business needs to do to sort of get that back to double digits like you were previously?
Yeah, good morning, Graham. The first thing I'd say is on a year-to-date basis, excluding FX and one-off items, revenue is up 10%. We are still driving double-digit growth. Specifically for Q3, while we saw an uptick in the VUM, a lot of those vehicles were actually onboarded in September. The revenue they contribute for Q3 was relatively modest. We expect that those vehicles that we onboarded will see an uptick in Q4, as well as additional VUM we expect to bring in in Q4. Last quarter, I raised one large client win that we had that represents approximately 1% of VUM growth. That's actually not in our Q3 numbers. We'll likely see that come into Q4.
1% VUM growth in Q3, minimal impact to service revenue, but we'll see that come through in Q4, plus additional clients that we'll onboard in Q4 will set ourselves up to continue to grow our service revenue.
This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Laura Dottori-Attanasio for closing remarks.
Thank you, operator. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Looking ahead, our strategic priorities remain clear. That is to provide exceptional value to our clients, advance our digital leadership, and deliver sustainable growth for our shareholders, all while we stay true to our purpose and to our values. I really want to take this time to thank our global team members for their commitment and to thank our shareholders, our analysts, and our stakeholders for your continued support. We look forward to speaking with you again on our next quarterly call in February.
This brings today's conference call to a close. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.