Source FY2025 audited financial statements, restated in the modelWorkings data appendixUpdated 24 September 2026
The read
The fastest fleet build in the sector and the highest return on capital in it, at 10.7% against a sector median of 9.9%. Revenue of SAR 1.7B is 29.9% of the sector on the smallest fleet of the three, because it earns more per vehicle than either peer.
It is also the most expensive of the three to fund. Cost of capital of 10.2% is the highest in the sector, on the highest beta in it, which leaves a margin of +0.6pt over the hurdle in spite of the best return. Debt to equity of 1.13x sits between the other two, interest is covered 6.7x over, and receivables of 84 days are much the shortest here against a sector median of 123.
The distinguishing decision is what it does with the money, which is keep all of it. Lumi has declared no dividend in any year covered here: SAR 0.00 a share, 0.0% of net profit, against free cash flow of SAR 144M, the best in the sector. That is a defensible policy for a company whose fleet is still being built. It does mean the whole of a shareholder's return so far has had to come from the share price, and the share price has roughly halved since the first year quoted here.
The bet it made
Lumi built a fleet from 8,400 vehicles in 2018 to 37,800 in 2025, four and a half times over, and did much of it in a single year: 19,634 to 33,300 across 2023. It is the newest of the three to the market and by a distance the fastest builder in it.
The build has stopped being the story. The fleet grew 2% in 2024 and 11% in 2025, and revenue growth has come down from 40% to 8% over the same two years. What read as a growth company on the numbers is becoming a return-on-capital company, which is a harder thing to be in a sector with no barrier to entry.
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budget Saudi | 0.5% | 4.4% | 0.4% | 2.7% | 1.3% | 0.8% | 2.2% | 1.3% |
| Theeb | n/a | 0.6% | 0.6% | 0.8% | 0.6% | 1.0% | 0.9% | 0.7% |
| Lumi | n/a | 0.6% | 0.6% | 0.5% | 0.3% | 1.1% | 1.5% | 1.9% |
Where the money comes from
Long-term leasing
SAR 653M and 39% of revenue, the largest line in the company and up 15% in 2025.
Short-term rental
SAR 517M and 31% of revenue, on 41 rental points: well under half the network Budget Saudi runs. It earns about SAR 31,000 of hire revenue per vehicle a year against SAR 27,000 at Budget Saudi, which is the whole argument for the smaller network.
Selling the vehicle
SAR 498M, 30% of revenue at a 4% margin. It cycles nearly as much of its fleet through the used-car market as Budget Saudi does and is paid a fraction as much for it.
What it does with the money
Nothing goes out. Lumi has declared no dividend in any year covered here, which on the reading this piece takes of cash flow in a fleet business is the coherent policy for a company still buying vehicles faster than it retires them.
It has not been rewarded for it. The share price has gone from SAR 100 in the first year quoted here to SAR 49.92, and price to book from 5.4 times to 2.0. The sector's EV/EBITDA came down from about nine times to under six over the same two years, so this is not only a Lumi story. Lumi simply started from the highest multiple and had the furthest to fall.
What comes back to shareholders
Of what it earned in FY2025, Lumi declared SAR 0.00 a share, 0.0% of net profit, against free cash flow of SAR 144M. In this sector the free cash flow figure is not the test it looks like: a fleet business shows a negative one while it is buying vehicles faster than it retires them, which is growth rather than distress. Read it beside the fleet count, not on its own.
In context
This company only means something next to the other two and against the economics of the industry they share.
Read the industry piece See it against the others