General Finance Corporation (GFN) saw its loss narrow to $1.16 million, or $0.08 a share for the quarter ended Mar. 31, 2017. In the previous year period, the company reported a loss of $2.36 million, or $0.13 a share.

Revenue during the quarter grew 3 percent to $68.46 million from $66.47 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter contracted 17 basis points over the previous year period to 44.92 percent. Total expenses were 94.73 percent of quarterly revenues, down from 98.57 percent for the same period last year. This has led to an improvement of 384 basis points in operating margin to 5.27 percent.

Operating income for the quarter was $3.61 million, compared with $0.95 million in the previous year period.

However, the adjusted EBITDA for the quarter stood at $14.74 million compared with $14.19 million in the prior year period. At the same time, adjusted EBITDA margin improved 18 basis points in the quarter to 21.53 percent from 21.35 percent in the last year period.

"This quarter marks the first quarter in two years where we have delivered year-over-year growth for adjusted EBITDA, primarily due to ongoing growth in the non-oil and gas sectors at our North America leasing operations and the second consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth at our Asia-Pacific leasing operations," said Ronald Valenta, chairman and chief executive officer.

General Finance Corp projects revenue to be in the range of $270 million to $280 million for financial year 2017.