United Rentals (URI) Risk Analysis

Although we have announced aspirational sustainability and safety goals, including our greenhouse gas intensity reduction goal, our efforts to provide more low- and zero-emissions equipment to our customers and our efforts to provide customers with tools to monitor and manage their environmental impacts, there can be no assurance that our shareholders and other stakeholders will agree with our goals and strategies or be satisfied with our efforts to attain such goals. Moreover, any perception, whether or not valid, that we have failed to act responsibly with respect to such matters, failed (or may fail) to achieve our goals or to effectively respond to new or additional legal or regulatory requirements, could adversely affect our business, reputation and exposure to legal risks. Our ability to execute on our aspirational sustainability and safety goals is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside of our control, including, but not limited to, our ability to achieve our goals within the expected timeframes and the currently projected cost ranges; the availability and cost of renewable energy; the availability and cost of low- and zero-emissions equipment and vehicles for our rental fleet; the availability and cost of low- and zero-emissions vehicles for our sales, service and delivery non-rental fleet; compliance with global and regional regulations, taxes, charges, mandates or requirements relating to greenhouse gas emissions, carbon costs or climate-related goals; adapting products to customer preferences and customer acceptance of low- and zero-emissions equipment; the accuracy of the assumptions used to estimate customers' emissions in our emissions tracking tool in Total Control; and the actions of competitors and competitive pressures. As a result, there is no assurance that we will be able to successfully achieve our aspirational sustainability and safety goals, which could damage our reputation and customer and other stakeholder relationships and have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our centralization of equipment and non-equipment purchases has resulted in us depending on, and being exposed to, the credit risk of a group of key suppliers. While we make every effort to evaluate our counterparties prior to entering into long-term and other significant procurement contracts, we cannot predict the impact on our suppliers of the economic environment and other developments in their respective businesses. Insolvency, financial difficulties, consolidation among our suppliers, or other factors may result in our suppliers not being able to fulfill the terms of their agreements with us. Further, such factors may render suppliers unwilling to extend contracts that provide favorable terms to us, or may force them to seek to renegotiate existing contracts with us. The termination of our relationship with any of our key suppliers could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations in the unlikely event that we were unable to obtain adequate equipment or supplies from other sources in a timely manner, at a reasonable cost or at all.

Our 1,494 branch locations in the United States are located in 49 states, and Puerto Rico, which exposes us to a host of different state and local regulations, in addition to federal law and regulatory and contractual requirements we face as a government contractor. These laws and requirements address multiple aspects of our operations, such as employee safety, consumer rights, privacy, employee benefits and more. In addition, there are often different and potentially conflicting requirements in different jurisdictions. Changes in these requirements, or any material failure by our branches to comply with them, can increase our costs, affect our reputation, limit our business, drain management time and attention and otherwise impact our operations in adverse ways.

In the ordinary course of our business operations, we are exposed to a variety of potential claims. These claims include those relating to personal injuries or property damage arising from: (i) the use and/or operation of our rented or sold equipment, (ii) motor vehicle accidents involving our vehicles and our employees, and (iii) employment-related claims. Currently, we carry a broad range of insurance for the protection of our assets and operations and we also self-insure for certain types of claims. However, such insurance and self-insurance may not fully cover these claims for a number of reasons, including: - our insurance policies, reflecting a program structure that we believe reflects market conditions for companies of our size, are often subject to significant deductibles or self-insured retentions;- our director and officer liability insurance policy has no deductible for individual non-indemnifiable loss, but is subject to a deductible for company reimbursement coverage;- we do not currently maintain Company-wide stand-alone first party coverage for environmental liability (other than legally required and third-party site pollution coverage), since we believe the cost for such coverage is high relative to the benefit it provides; and - certain types of claims, such as claims for punitive damages or for damages arising from intentional misconduct, which are often alleged in third-party lawsuits, might not be covered by our insurance. We establish and evaluate our loss reserves on a semi-annual basis to address casualty claims, or portions thereof, not covered by our insurance policies or self-insurance. To the extent that we are subject to a higher frequency of claims, are subject to more serious claims or insurance coverage is not available, we could have to significantly increase our reserves, and our liquidity and operating results could be materially and adversely affected. It is also possible that some or all of the insurance that is currently available to us from third parties will not be available in the future on economically reasonable terms or at all.

We are subject to income taxes in the U.S. and other jurisdictions where we operate. Changes to income tax laws and regulations in any of the jurisdictions where we operate could adversely affect our overall tax liability and adversely impact our financial results. In addition, we are subject to tax audits in the various jurisdictions in which we operate. Given the complexity of the current and changing tax laws and regulations, tax authorities may disagree with certain positions we have taken, or may in the future take, and assess additional taxes, which could have a material impact on our effective tax rate and adversely impact our financial results and cash flows.

We depend on the security of our information technology systems, and those of our third-party vendors, to support numerous business processes and activities, including our online ordering system. There are numerous cybersecurity risks applicable to these systems, including individual and group criminal hackers, industrial espionage, man-in-the-middle and denial of service attacks, viruses, malicious software (malware), employee error or malfeasance and phishing attacks. We also face cybersecurity risks due to our reliance on internet technology and hybrid work arrangements, which could strain our technology resources or create additional opportunities for cybercriminals to exploit vulnerabilities. Cyber threats are constantly evolving, especially given the advances in, and the rise of the use of, artificial intelligence, thereby increasing the difficulty of preventing, detecting and successfully defending against them. Successful breaches could, among other things, disrupt our operations, jeopardize the security of information stored in or transmitted by the sites, networks and systems, which include cloud-based networks and data center storage, or result in the unauthorized access, disclosure, theft and misuse of company, customer, and employee sensitive and confidential information. If this were to occur, we could be in violation of applicable privacy, data security and other laws, subjected to regulatory enforcement actions and private litigation, and our reputation and financial performance may be adversely affected. Although we employ security measures designed to protect our data and systems, and, to our knowledge, so do our third-party vendors, these measures have in the past not detected or prevented, and may in the future not detect or prevent, all attempts to infiltrate our systems. We have, from time to time, experienced threats to and breaches of our data and systems, including malware and computer virus attacks, which have led, and could in the future lead to, disruptions in our online ordering or other systems, or the unauthorized release of confidential or otherwise protected information or corruption of data. We continuously develop and enhance our controls, processes and practices that are designed to protect our systems, computers, software, data and networks from attack, damage, vulnerabilities or unauthorized access. This continued development and enhancement requires us to expend significant resources. However, we may not anticipate or combat all types of future attacks until after they have been launched, and there is no guarantee that the measures we take will be adequate to safeguard against all threats. If any of these breaches of security occur or are anticipated in the future, we could be required to expend additional capital and other resources, including costs to deploy additional personnel and protection technologies, train employees and engage third-party experts and consultants. Our response to attacks, and our investments in our technology and our controls, processes and practices, may not be sufficient to shield us from significant losses or liability. Further, given the increasing sophistication of bad actors and complexity of the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or disable systems, a breach or attack could potentially persist for an extended period of time before being detected. As a result, we may not be able to anticipate the attack or respond adequately or timely, and the extent of a particular incident, and the steps that we may need to take to investigate the incident, may not be immediately clear. It could take a significant amount of time before an investigation can be completed and full, reliable information about the incident becomes known. During an investigation, it is possible we may not necessarily know the extent of the harm or how to remediate it, which could further adversely impact us, and applicable regulations could result in us being required to disclose information about a material cybersecurity incident before it has been mitigated or resolved, or even fully investigated. Certain of our software applications are also hosted by third parties who provide outsourced administrative functions, which may increase the risk of a cybersecurity incident. Any compromise or breach of our systems could result in adverse publicity, harm our reputation, lead to claims against us and affect our relationships with our customers and employees, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial performance. Although we maintain insurance coverage for various cybersecurity risks, there can be no guarantee that all costs or losses incurred will be fully insured.

Our business has been and may in the future be adversely affected by economic conditions in the United States and globally. A worsening of economic conditions, in particular with respect to North American construction and industrial activities, could cause weakness in our end-markets and adversely affect our revenues and operating results, the effect of which could be exacerbated due to end-market concentration. Our general rental equipment and specialty equipment are used in connection with private non-residential construction and industrial activities. In the past, weakness in our end-markets has led to a decrease in the demand for our equipment and in the rates we realized. Such decreases have adversely affected our operating results by causing our revenues to decline and, because certain of our costs are fixed, our operating margins to be reduced. In addition, the following factors, among others, could adversely impact us, our customers or our suppliers and in turn adversely affect our revenues and operating results: - a decrease in expected levels of infrastructure spending;- a lack of availability of credit;- excess fleet in the equipment rental industry;- a decrease in the level of exploration, development, production activity and capital spending by oil and natural gas companies;- an increase in costs, including the cost of construction materials, as a result of inflation, tariffs or other factors;- an increase in interest rates;- instability in macroeconomic conditions;- adverse weather conditions, which may temporarily affect a particular region;- a prolonged shutdown of the U.S. government;- public health crises and epidemics (or concerns over the possibility of such a health crisis or epidemic), such as COVID-19;- supply chain disruptions;- terrorism or hostilities involving the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia or New Zealand;- geopolitical conflicts, such as those in Ukraine and Venezuela, and the resultant sanctions and other measures imposed in response; or - other unforeseen or catastrophic events. These factors have in the past resulted, and could in the future result, in, among other things, weakness in our end-markets, reduced customer demand for equipment rentals, reduced availability and productivity of our employees, increased costs, delayed payments from our customers and uncollectible accounts, impacts to previously announced strategic plans or impacts to our ability to access funds from financial institutions and capital markets on terms favorable to us, or at all.

As severe weather events and other natural occurrences become increasingly common, our or our customers' operations may be disrupted, which could result in increased operational costs or reduced demand for our products and services, and the increased incidence of severe weather and other natural occurrences may also reduce the availability or increase the cost of insurance for such events. In addition, severe weather events and other natural occurrences may impact the global economy, including as a result of disruptions to supply chains. While we have invested in the administration of programs and physical loss prevention improvements to mitigate the risk of natural disasters causing disruption to our ability to serve our customers and communities in times of need, extended periods of disruptions could have an adverse effect on our results of operations.

Our operations in Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand are subject to the risks normally associated with international operations. These include the need to (i) convert currencies, which could result in a gain or loss depending on fluctuations in exchange rates and (ii) comply with foreign laws and regulations, as well as U.S. laws and regulations, applicable to our operations in foreign jurisdictions. Changes in such laws or regulations, or any material failure to comply with any applicable laws or regulations, can increase our costs, affect our reputation, limit our business, drain management time and attention and otherwise impact our operations in adverse ways. In addition, laws or regulations or the interpretations thereof can conflict among jurisdictions, and compliance in one jurisdiction could result in legal or reputational risks in another jurisdiction. See Item 7A-Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk for additional information related to currency exchange risk.

The equipment rental industry is highly fragmented and competitive. Our competitors include small, independent businesses with one or two rental locations, regional competitors that operate in one or more states, national and global companies or divisions of national and global companies, and equipment vendors and dealers who both sell and rent equipment directly to customers. We may in the future encounter increased competition from our existing competitors or from new competitors. Competitive pressures have in the past adversely affected, and could again in the future adversely affect, our revenues and operating results by, among other things, decreasing our rental volumes, depressing the prices that we can charge or increasing our costs to retain employees.

One of the reasons some of our customers find it more attractive to rent equipment than own that equipment is the need to deploy their capital elsewhere. However, some of our customers may have liquidity issues and ultimately may not be able to fulfill the terms of their rental agreements with us. If we are unable to manage credit risk issues adequately, or if a large number of customers have financial difficulties at the same time, our credit losses could increase above historical levels and our operating results would be adversely affected. Further, a worsening of economic conditions would be expected to result in increased delinquencies and credit losses, which could exacerbate adverse impacts on our business and operating results.