TULSA, Okla., Nov. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Vanguard Car Rental Holdings LLC
("Vanguard"), operating under the National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car
brands, announced today that it has entered into a strategic alliance with
Europcar Groupe S.A. ("Europcar") to provide a global car rental solution
to corporate and leisure customers.
"Our partnership with Europcar will enable us to better serve our
customers and provide them with a competitive global alternative in the car
rental market," said William E. Lobeck, President and Chief Executive
Officer of Vanguard. "They will also benefit from having access to an
enhanced network that will truly deliver the highest quality car rental
experience worldwide for our National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car
customers."
"Europcar and Vanguard share a common vision of the vehicle rental
market and today we are forging an alliance that will enable us to offer
our clients a premium quality service anywhere in the world," said
Salvatore Catania, CEO of Europcar.
Under the alliance, National, Alamo and Europcar will be operating in
over 150 countries with access to nearly 6,000 locations and a fleet of
over 500,000 vehicles.
As a part of this alliance, Vanguard also entered into a definitive
agreement with Europcar to sell the equity of its subsidiary, Vanguard Car
Rental EMEA Holdings Ltd., which operates in Europe, the Middle East and
Africa (EMEA). The sale is subject to regulatory approvals and other
customary closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close in the
first quarter of 2007.
About Vanguard Car Rental Holdings LLC
As operator of the National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car brands,
Vanguard Car Rental Holdings LLC comprises one of the leading car rental
companies, with more than 3,200 locations in 83 countries, including the
United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, the Caribbean, Latin America, Asia,
the Pacific Rim, Africa, the Middle East and Australia.
About Europcar
The French investment company Eurazeo has a majority holding in
Europcar, via the Europcar Group. Europcar is a European leader in
passenger car and light utility vehicle rentals. Its network comprises over
2,950 rental outlets in over 145 countries. With a fleet of over 200,000
vehicles and almost 7 million rental contracts signed in 2005, Europcar
provides its services to its clients (business and private) throughout
Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region.
In 2005, Europcar achieved revenues of 1.28 billion euros. In the first
half of 2006, revenues increased by 14.6 per cent compared to the first
half of 2005. The Group has a workforce of 5,600 employees.
SOURCE Vanguard Car Rental Group Inc.
domingo, 1 de abril de 2007
Enterprise Rent-a-Car Buys Vanguard, a Rival
By LANDON THOMAS Jr.
Published: March 31, 2007
In the latest sign of consolidation within the car rental industry, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, the largest car rental company in North America, said yesterday that it had acquired a smaller rival, Vanguard Car Rental, which owns the National and Alamo brands.
The chief executive of Enterprise, Andrew C. Taylor, said that the acquisition would complement the company’s current business.
“The future belongs to the service providers who offer the broadest array of services for anyone who needs or wants to rent a car,” Mr. Taylor said.
With $9 billion in revenues, a fleet of about 880,000 vehicles and its network of 7,000 locations, Enterprise’s strength is its breadth and penetration into cities across the country. The company is based in St. Louis.
Vanguard, on the other hand, specializes in serving corporate customers at major airport locations.
The acquisition comes during a time of increasing investor interest in the car rental business as rental prices have increased in the aftermath of an effort by the major automakers to not flood the rental market with discounted vehicles.
In 2005, Hertz was acquired from Ford Motor by a group of private equity investors who quickly engineered a public offering at $15 a share last year. The stock closed yesterday at $23.70.
Vanguard, which is based in Tulsa, Okla., is owned by Cerberus, the private equity firm that bought the company out of bankruptcy when it was the ANC Rental Corporation. The National and Alamo brands were previously owned by Republic Industries, controlled by H. Wayne Huizenga.
Last year, in a filing for a public offering, Vanguard said it earned $105.3 million in 2005 on $2.89 billion in revenue.
Published: March 31, 2007
In the latest sign of consolidation within the car rental industry, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, the largest car rental company in North America, said yesterday that it had acquired a smaller rival, Vanguard Car Rental, which owns the National and Alamo brands.
The chief executive of Enterprise, Andrew C. Taylor, said that the acquisition would complement the company’s current business.
“The future belongs to the service providers who offer the broadest array of services for anyone who needs or wants to rent a car,” Mr. Taylor said.
With $9 billion in revenues, a fleet of about 880,000 vehicles and its network of 7,000 locations, Enterprise’s strength is its breadth and penetration into cities across the country. The company is based in St. Louis.
Vanguard, on the other hand, specializes in serving corporate customers at major airport locations.
The acquisition comes during a time of increasing investor interest in the car rental business as rental prices have increased in the aftermath of an effort by the major automakers to not flood the rental market with discounted vehicles.
In 2005, Hertz was acquired from Ford Motor by a group of private equity investors who quickly engineered a public offering at $15 a share last year. The stock closed yesterday at $23.70.
Vanguard, which is based in Tulsa, Okla., is owned by Cerberus, the private equity firm that bought the company out of bankruptcy when it was the ANC Rental Corporation. The National and Alamo brands were previously owned by Republic Industries, controlled by H. Wayne Huizenga.
Last year, in a filing for a public offering, Vanguard said it earned $105.3 million in 2005 on $2.89 billion in revenue.
viernes, 30 de marzo de 2007
Enterprise Rent-A-Car to Acquire Vanguard Car Rental
Enterprise Rent-A-Car to Acquire Vanguard Car Rental March 30, 2007 ST. LOUIS – Enterprise Rent-A-Car announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Vanguard Car Rental Group Inc. The transaction between two privately held companies is expected to close in the third or fourth quarter of 2007, contingent upon clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Anti-Trust Improvements Act and other customary closing conditions.
The acquisition will join two rental car companies with complementary businesses. St. Louis-based Enterprise’s primary strength lies in the in-town and insurance replacement segments of the industry. Vanguard, based in Tulsa, Okla., operates the National Car Rental and Alamo Rent-A-Car brands, which serve the airport segment of the market. According to Enterprise press materials, capitalizing on the companies’ assets in these different segments will allow more efficient fleet utilization and enhance the combined companies’ ability to offer low prices and quality customer service.
“As the dynamics of our industry continue to evolve, it’s clear to us that the future belongs to the service providers who offer the broadest array of services for anyone who needs or wants to rent a car,” said Enterprise Rent-A-Car Chairman and CEO Andrew C. Taylor. “Joining forces with National and Alamo will enable us to do just that, from replacement and leisure rentals to small-business and corporate customers."
According to Taylor, the move also “makes great sense for the employees of both organizations. This transaction will give our combined operations a comprehensive range of assets that will enhance our ability to compete vigorously in every segment of the industry and for all kinds of customers."
"By combining our companies, we will be able to offer an expanded network to better serve the needs of car rental customers and will continue to be able to deliver the award-winning service they have come to expect with each rental experience,” said William E. Lobeck, president and CEO, Vanguard Car Rental USA Inc.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The acquisition will join two rental car companies with complementary businesses. St. Louis-based Enterprise’s primary strength lies in the in-town and insurance replacement segments of the industry. Vanguard, based in Tulsa, Okla., operates the National Car Rental and Alamo Rent-A-Car brands, which serve the airport segment of the market. According to Enterprise press materials, capitalizing on the companies’ assets in these different segments will allow more efficient fleet utilization and enhance the combined companies’ ability to offer low prices and quality customer service.
“As the dynamics of our industry continue to evolve, it’s clear to us that the future belongs to the service providers who offer the broadest array of services for anyone who needs or wants to rent a car,” said Enterprise Rent-A-Car Chairman and CEO Andrew C. Taylor. “Joining forces with National and Alamo will enable us to do just that, from replacement and leisure rentals to small-business and corporate customers."
According to Taylor, the move also “makes great sense for the employees of both organizations. This transaction will give our combined operations a comprehensive range of assets that will enhance our ability to compete vigorously in every segment of the industry and for all kinds of customers."
"By combining our companies, we will be able to offer an expanded network to better serve the needs of car rental customers and will continue to be able to deliver the award-winning service they have come to expect with each rental experience,” said William E. Lobeck, president and CEO, Vanguard Car Rental USA Inc.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Playing the Market: Rental Car Companies Go Public
Playing the Market: Rental Car Companies Go Public
By Chris Brown
Hertz and Vanguard will soon trade alongside Avis Budget Group and Dollar Thrifty Group on the Big Board. With profit pressures stronger than ever, what are the ramifications of rental car companies going public?
With all the recent spin-offs, break ups and franchise buyouts, the auto rental industry is starting to resemble Europe after the fall of Communism.
Less than a year after Ford let go of Hertz in a leveraged buyout, the company—now called Hertz Global Holdings Inc.—is preparing to go public. Not three weeks after Hertz announced its filing in July did Vanguard, operator of the National and Alamo brands, enter the fray. Purchased out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2003, the company is expected to IPO by the end of this year as well. Avis Budget Group, the lone remaining piece of the former Cendant empire, started trading on its own in September.
What does the future look like for these pending IPOs and the industry in general? And how could it possibly affect you? The Changing Landscape
In 2005, the local rental market experienced higher revenues than the airport segment for the first time. Hertz is aggressively pursuing off-airport locations with Hertz Local Edition. Avis Budget is in the midst of stated plans to expand its local market presence by more than 500 locations in three years.
Meanwhile Enterprise, the insurance replacement and local market leader and pioneer, is experiencing double-digit growth in fleet size and revenue at airport locations, and the Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group is buying back shares and gobbling up available franchises across the country.
The industry has finally rebounded from post-9/11 doldrums with pre-9/11 revenues. Yet it still faces considerable challenges: higher interest rates, fleet costs and vehicle prices.
“There hasn’t been a period where there has been so much going on that potentially has a long-term effect on the dynamics and landscape of the business,” says Neil Abrams, president of Abrams Consulting Group. “The old rules of doing business no longer work. They [auto rental companies] are all in this evolutionary stage where they’re moving into markets, revenue channels and business strategies that they’ve not exercised before. The supply chains, disposal channels and types of markets are in the throes of reevaluation.”
The economic boom of the late 90’s gave the travel and transportation industry a boost, with 2000 being a peak year for revenue. And then came 9/11 and the fallout, which only exacerbated the impending implosion of the dot-com industry. During the recession car rental companies, and the travel and transportation industries in general, were jolted into realigning their fleets and reevaluating their whole business model, Abrams says.
Today revenues are finally approaching pre-9/11 peaks, but profits are mixed.
Dollar Thrifty Auto Group reported net income of $37.3 million for the first six months of 2006, compared to $24.3 million over the first half of 2005.
Hertz, Avis Budget and Vanguard, however, saw revenues rise in the first half of 2006, only to experience a steep drop in net income compared to 2004.
Enterprise reported a company record $9.04 billion in worldwide revenues in fiscal year 2006. Because it is privately held, Enterprise does not have to share net income figures. But that it’s the most profitable car rental company is no secret.
Nonetheless, Enterprise faces the same profit pressures as the other majors.
Playing the Market: Rental Car Companies Go Public
( Page 2 of 4 )
What’s Eating Profits?
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates 17 consecutive times since June 2004 before deciding to hold rates steady in August. Both Hertz and Avis Budget say their decrease in net income is primarily due to increased interest expense.
In addition, fleet costs are up 25 percent in the past two years, says Abrams, and increased competition has helped prevent rental rates from keeping pace.
The Big 3 domestic automakers are no longer in the business of supplying the auto rental industry with cheap cars. The days of fat incentives are over and guaranteed depreciation programs are shrinking.
GM is coming through on its stated goal to reduce daily rental sales, which were down 20 percent year over year in August and 26 percent in September.
In Ford’s case, there will be simply fewer cars on the bargaining table. Ford’s accelerated “Way Forward” plan includes a reduction in North American fourth-quarter production by 21 percent, or 168,000 units, compared with the fourth quarter a year ago. Rental fleets’ piece of the pie will be cut by about 33,000 vehicles, under present allocations.
Hertz, who has in recent years bought at least half of its cars from its former parent and 19 percent from GM, experienced a 17 percent rise in depreciation expense for its 2006 fleet.
Vanguard, joined at the hip with GM and DaimlerChrysler (82.5 percent and 16.2 percent of total fleet in 2005, respectively) saw a 15 percent rise in depreciation expense. Both companies expect those depreciation losses to go higher.
The domestic manufacturers’ woes on Wall Street have also aggravated the debt situation. As the credit ratings of the manufacturers have gone down, the amount of collateral a car rental company must put up to finance their fleets has increased.
Rolling with the Punches – Why the car rental industry is looking good
Higher fleet costs, vehicle costs and interest rates remain a threat. Yet the car rental industry has an advantage over its travel and transportation brethren.
The number of vehicles in a rental fleet can be more easily ramped up or down depending on demand, unlike lodging or airlines, which have to deal with far more expensive and inelastic assets.
Taking an airplane out of service and consolidating routes takes months. And, in the lodging industry, “when business is off you can’t lop off the top four floors of a hotel,” Abrams notes.
RAC’s can unload cars in bad times, albeit affecting residual values. But they can also dip into the aftermarket to move vehicles into fleet in a matter of days. And aging a fleet for an extra month before remarketing—-with little effect on the renter—-can save a lot in capital spending.
Playing the Market: Rental Car Companies Go Public
( Page 3 of 4 )
Welcome HTZ and VCG In the midst of these financial and fleet management pressures, the majors are launching their IPOs. Memorize these stock tickers: VCG (Vanguard) and HTZ (Hertz). Both will soon join DTG (Dollar Thrifty) and CAR (Avis Budget) on the Big Board.
Private-equity fund managers The Carlyle Group, Clayton Dubilier & Rice Inc. and a private equity affiliate of Merrill Lynch bought Hertz in a leveraged buyout from Ford in December 2005 for about $15 billion. They plan an initial public offering of $1 billion in common stock later this year.
The Vanguard IPO is also being brought by a private equity investor, hedge fund behemoth Cerberus Capital Management L.P. Cerberus bought Vanguard out of bankruptcy in 2003 for a steal at $223 million.
Far less than Hertz’s $1 billion, the company is seeking to raise $300 million in common stock, according to its SEC S1 filing.
“Vanguard is finding its way out of bankruptcy,” says Abrams. “Based on the numbers they appear to be turning things around with their image, their market share and their core market segments that had eroded.”
Beware the Quick Flip?
Hertz may have the prestige name and a solid corporate foundation, yet some Wall Street analysts don’t look too keenly on leveraged buyout firms that “flip” companies for quick profits.
A leveraged buyout (LBO) involves the acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money to meet the cost of acquisition. This allows LBO firms to make large acquisitions without having to commit a lot of capital. LBO firms are not in it for the long haul. The goal is to improve a company’s balance sheet, bring the company public, and take their profit from the sold shares.
What could an LBO firm possibly do in less than a year, in Hertz’s case, to improve a company’s worth?
“They install what I refer to as a hot management style,” says Ben Holmes, publisher of Morningnotes.com, an independent research firm. “They go in and slash and burn. They have guys whose job is to find fat and get rid of it. These transactions are not to make the company stronger and increase shareholder value, except for themselves as shareholders,” Holmes told ARN.
Outspoken venture capitalist Paul Kedrosky posted on his blog: “While it’s nice to see the boys and girls are able to flip something the size of Hertz in a scant seven months, it's still a little surprising.”
Kedrosky wonders why Hertz’s private equity backers are going public in such a hurry after they had $1 billion dividended back to them and thus already taken much of the risk from the deal. He theorizes that higher gas and car prices don’t bode well for future earnings.
“It seems clear this should be read as a savvy and strongly negative insider statement about the car rental business. Buying (in the IPO) when so many smart people are selling is rarely a good idea,” he concludes.
Playing the Market: Rental Car Companies Go Public
( Page 4 of 4 )
A recently published study suggests that quick flips don’t provide the value investors seek.
The study, by Jerry Cao of Boston College and Josh Lerner of Harvard Business School, looked at 500 initial public offerings from 1980 to 2002 brought by private-equity firms.
The IPOs that were brought within a year of the leveraged buyout underperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 by 5 percent. IPOs completed more than a year after being bought out yielded a 23 percent higher return.
Betsy Snyder, a credit analyst for Standard & Poor’s and a longtime car rental industry watcher, makes a distinction between leveraged buyouts in the car rental industry and those of other industries.
“You can’t add that much debt to these [car rental] companies because they’re already so highly leveraged to start with,” she says.
“Cerberus is not a quick flip,” says Snyder. “I think they’re taking advantage of market opportunities. I don’t think they bought it and will dump it because they’ve lost confidence in the company.”
“In Hertz’s case, they didn’t add that much debt to the balance sheet, but interest and operating expenses were up.”
Snyder says the buyout firms refinanced Hertz when interest rates were rising. They used rental vehicles as collateral, so those cars are tied up with the financing.
“Before, all their debt was unsecured. If something happened, they could sell the cars. They don’t control the cars anymore,” she says.
Why these IPO’s are good for the industry
In as much as playing the stock market is like gambling, it’s hard to predict the short and long-term performance of Hertz’s and Vanguard’s IPOs.
Hertz and Vanguard will soon join Dollar Thrifty and Avis Budget Group as standalone public companies. And as such, their operations are much more transparent than they were when privately held or part of major conglomerates such as Ford, Cendant and AutoNation.
These car rental companies must make public their financial filings, purchase agreements with manufacturers, business strategies, corporate operations and salaries. As a result, the effects of rising interest rates and fleet costs, and changes in business practices, can be charted with hard numbers.
Over time, trends and patterns emerge and can be benchmarked in individual companies and the industry as a whole, providing a gauge against which other companies can measure their growth.
“Any scrutiny of the industry is positive for those that have stake or equity in the industry,” Abrams says. “It puts the rental industry on the radar screen. People are talking about it. People are analyzing it. And at the end of the day it provides value to the operators in the industry, whether you’re a large global brand or a local independent.”
Late Breaking News: Hertz Sets Share Pricing Range
The underwriters for Hertz Global Holdings Inc. have set a pricing range for its upcomgin initial public offering of 88.2 million shares of $16 to $18 per share. The company is valuing itself at around $5.45 billion, according to an SEC filing
By Chris Brown
Hertz and Vanguard will soon trade alongside Avis Budget Group and Dollar Thrifty Group on the Big Board. With profit pressures stronger than ever, what are the ramifications of rental car companies going public?
With all the recent spin-offs, break ups and franchise buyouts, the auto rental industry is starting to resemble Europe after the fall of Communism.
Less than a year after Ford let go of Hertz in a leveraged buyout, the company—now called Hertz Global Holdings Inc.—is preparing to go public. Not three weeks after Hertz announced its filing in July did Vanguard, operator of the National and Alamo brands, enter the fray. Purchased out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2003, the company is expected to IPO by the end of this year as well. Avis Budget Group, the lone remaining piece of the former Cendant empire, started trading on its own in September.
What does the future look like for these pending IPOs and the industry in general? And how could it possibly affect you? The Changing Landscape
In 2005, the local rental market experienced higher revenues than the airport segment for the first time. Hertz is aggressively pursuing off-airport locations with Hertz Local Edition. Avis Budget is in the midst of stated plans to expand its local market presence by more than 500 locations in three years.
Meanwhile Enterprise, the insurance replacement and local market leader and pioneer, is experiencing double-digit growth in fleet size and revenue at airport locations, and the Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group is buying back shares and gobbling up available franchises across the country.
The industry has finally rebounded from post-9/11 doldrums with pre-9/11 revenues. Yet it still faces considerable challenges: higher interest rates, fleet costs and vehicle prices.
“There hasn’t been a period where there has been so much going on that potentially has a long-term effect on the dynamics and landscape of the business,” says Neil Abrams, president of Abrams Consulting Group. “The old rules of doing business no longer work. They [auto rental companies] are all in this evolutionary stage where they’re moving into markets, revenue channels and business strategies that they’ve not exercised before. The supply chains, disposal channels and types of markets are in the throes of reevaluation.”
The economic boom of the late 90’s gave the travel and transportation industry a boost, with 2000 being a peak year for revenue. And then came 9/11 and the fallout, which only exacerbated the impending implosion of the dot-com industry. During the recession car rental companies, and the travel and transportation industries in general, were jolted into realigning their fleets and reevaluating their whole business model, Abrams says.
Today revenues are finally approaching pre-9/11 peaks, but profits are mixed.
Dollar Thrifty Auto Group reported net income of $37.3 million for the first six months of 2006, compared to $24.3 million over the first half of 2005.
Hertz, Avis Budget and Vanguard, however, saw revenues rise in the first half of 2006, only to experience a steep drop in net income compared to 2004.
Enterprise reported a company record $9.04 billion in worldwide revenues in fiscal year 2006. Because it is privately held, Enterprise does not have to share net income figures. But that it’s the most profitable car rental company is no secret.
Nonetheless, Enterprise faces the same profit pressures as the other majors.
Playing the Market: Rental Car Companies Go Public
( Page 2 of 4 )
What’s Eating Profits?
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates 17 consecutive times since June 2004 before deciding to hold rates steady in August. Both Hertz and Avis Budget say their decrease in net income is primarily due to increased interest expense.
In addition, fleet costs are up 25 percent in the past two years, says Abrams, and increased competition has helped prevent rental rates from keeping pace.
The Big 3 domestic automakers are no longer in the business of supplying the auto rental industry with cheap cars. The days of fat incentives are over and guaranteed depreciation programs are shrinking.
GM is coming through on its stated goal to reduce daily rental sales, which were down 20 percent year over year in August and 26 percent in September.
In Ford’s case, there will be simply fewer cars on the bargaining table. Ford’s accelerated “Way Forward” plan includes a reduction in North American fourth-quarter production by 21 percent, or 168,000 units, compared with the fourth quarter a year ago. Rental fleets’ piece of the pie will be cut by about 33,000 vehicles, under present allocations.
Hertz, who has in recent years bought at least half of its cars from its former parent and 19 percent from GM, experienced a 17 percent rise in depreciation expense for its 2006 fleet.
Vanguard, joined at the hip with GM and DaimlerChrysler (82.5 percent and 16.2 percent of total fleet in 2005, respectively) saw a 15 percent rise in depreciation expense. Both companies expect those depreciation losses to go higher.
The domestic manufacturers’ woes on Wall Street have also aggravated the debt situation. As the credit ratings of the manufacturers have gone down, the amount of collateral a car rental company must put up to finance their fleets has increased.
Rolling with the Punches – Why the car rental industry is looking good
Higher fleet costs, vehicle costs and interest rates remain a threat. Yet the car rental industry has an advantage over its travel and transportation brethren.
The number of vehicles in a rental fleet can be more easily ramped up or down depending on demand, unlike lodging or airlines, which have to deal with far more expensive and inelastic assets.
Taking an airplane out of service and consolidating routes takes months. And, in the lodging industry, “when business is off you can’t lop off the top four floors of a hotel,” Abrams notes.
RAC’s can unload cars in bad times, albeit affecting residual values. But they can also dip into the aftermarket to move vehicles into fleet in a matter of days. And aging a fleet for an extra month before remarketing—-with little effect on the renter—-can save a lot in capital spending.
Playing the Market: Rental Car Companies Go Public
( Page 3 of 4 )
Welcome HTZ and VCG In the midst of these financial and fleet management pressures, the majors are launching their IPOs. Memorize these stock tickers: VCG (Vanguard) and HTZ (Hertz). Both will soon join DTG (Dollar Thrifty) and CAR (Avis Budget) on the Big Board.
Private-equity fund managers The Carlyle Group, Clayton Dubilier & Rice Inc. and a private equity affiliate of Merrill Lynch bought Hertz in a leveraged buyout from Ford in December 2005 for about $15 billion. They plan an initial public offering of $1 billion in common stock later this year.
The Vanguard IPO is also being brought by a private equity investor, hedge fund behemoth Cerberus Capital Management L.P. Cerberus bought Vanguard out of bankruptcy in 2003 for a steal at $223 million.
Far less than Hertz’s $1 billion, the company is seeking to raise $300 million in common stock, according to its SEC S1 filing.
“Vanguard is finding its way out of bankruptcy,” says Abrams. “Based on the numbers they appear to be turning things around with their image, their market share and their core market segments that had eroded.”
Beware the Quick Flip?
Hertz may have the prestige name and a solid corporate foundation, yet some Wall Street analysts don’t look too keenly on leveraged buyout firms that “flip” companies for quick profits.
A leveraged buyout (LBO) involves the acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money to meet the cost of acquisition. This allows LBO firms to make large acquisitions without having to commit a lot of capital. LBO firms are not in it for the long haul. The goal is to improve a company’s balance sheet, bring the company public, and take their profit from the sold shares.
What could an LBO firm possibly do in less than a year, in Hertz’s case, to improve a company’s worth?
“They install what I refer to as a hot management style,” says Ben Holmes, publisher of Morningnotes.com, an independent research firm. “They go in and slash and burn. They have guys whose job is to find fat and get rid of it. These transactions are not to make the company stronger and increase shareholder value, except for themselves as shareholders,” Holmes told ARN.
Outspoken venture capitalist Paul Kedrosky posted on his blog: “While it’s nice to see the boys and girls are able to flip something the size of Hertz in a scant seven months, it's still a little surprising.”
Kedrosky wonders why Hertz’s private equity backers are going public in such a hurry after they had $1 billion dividended back to them and thus already taken much of the risk from the deal. He theorizes that higher gas and car prices don’t bode well for future earnings.
“It seems clear this should be read as a savvy and strongly negative insider statement about the car rental business. Buying (in the IPO) when so many smart people are selling is rarely a good idea,” he concludes.
Playing the Market: Rental Car Companies Go Public
( Page 4 of 4 )
A recently published study suggests that quick flips don’t provide the value investors seek.
The study, by Jerry Cao of Boston College and Josh Lerner of Harvard Business School, looked at 500 initial public offerings from 1980 to 2002 brought by private-equity firms.
The IPOs that were brought within a year of the leveraged buyout underperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 by 5 percent. IPOs completed more than a year after being bought out yielded a 23 percent higher return.
Betsy Snyder, a credit analyst for Standard & Poor’s and a longtime car rental industry watcher, makes a distinction between leveraged buyouts in the car rental industry and those of other industries.
“You can’t add that much debt to these [car rental] companies because they’re already so highly leveraged to start with,” she says.
“Cerberus is not a quick flip,” says Snyder. “I think they’re taking advantage of market opportunities. I don’t think they bought it and will dump it because they’ve lost confidence in the company.”
“In Hertz’s case, they didn’t add that much debt to the balance sheet, but interest and operating expenses were up.”
Snyder says the buyout firms refinanced Hertz when interest rates were rising. They used rental vehicles as collateral, so those cars are tied up with the financing.
“Before, all their debt was unsecured. If something happened, they could sell the cars. They don’t control the cars anymore,” she says.
Why these IPO’s are good for the industry
In as much as playing the stock market is like gambling, it’s hard to predict the short and long-term performance of Hertz’s and Vanguard’s IPOs.
Hertz and Vanguard will soon join Dollar Thrifty and Avis Budget Group as standalone public companies. And as such, their operations are much more transparent than they were when privately held or part of major conglomerates such as Ford, Cendant and AutoNation.
These car rental companies must make public their financial filings, purchase agreements with manufacturers, business strategies, corporate operations and salaries. As a result, the effects of rising interest rates and fleet costs, and changes in business practices, can be charted with hard numbers.
Over time, trends and patterns emerge and can be benchmarked in individual companies and the industry as a whole, providing a gauge against which other companies can measure their growth.
“Any scrutiny of the industry is positive for those that have stake or equity in the industry,” Abrams says. “It puts the rental industry on the radar screen. People are talking about it. People are analyzing it. And at the end of the day it provides value to the operators in the industry, whether you’re a large global brand or a local independent.”
Late Breaking News: Hertz Sets Share Pricing Range
The underwriters for Hertz Global Holdings Inc. have set a pricing range for its upcomgin initial public offering of 88.2 million shares of $16 to $18 per share. The company is valuing itself at around $5.45 billion, according to an SEC filing
How Will Fleet Cuts Affect the Auto Rental Industry?
How Will Fleet Cuts Affect the Auto Rental Industry?
By Chris Brown
Fewer cars means per-vehicle depreciation costs will increase by as much as 20 percent in 2007. How are the major RAC's coping?
Could the trumpets be any louder?
The domestic automakers have declared very publicly that decreasing incentives, low-margin sales to rental fleets and vehicle repurchase programs will help return them to profitability.
For the auto rental industry, this means no more government cheese. What are the car rental "Big Five"—Hertz, Avis Budget, Dollar Thrifty, Vanguard and Enterprise—doing about it? And how will their actions affect the independent car rental operator?
Reduction in Fleet Sales Underway
Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler have all started reducing fleet sales. In 2007, this will contribute to the lowest level of auto sales in a decade, economists warn.
Ford, which posted a $5.2 billion third-quarter loss in 2006, reported a drop in fleet sales in November, on the heels of the demise of the Taurus. Even on its last wheels in 2005, the mighty fleet car sold 122,000 units into rental. By contrast, the Taurus replacements, the Five Hundred and the Fusion, sell less than 30 percent of Taurus' numbers into fleets.
DaimlerChrysler, with inventory that took an average of 80 days to turn on dealers' lots in 2006, said in November it has also reduced fleet sales.
It's no secret now that much of DaimlerChrysler's sales gains in the past two years—in the face of GM and Ford's sales slide—came with low-margin fleet sales. However, "they haven't sweetened any of their car-buy deals to help with this excess inventory," says one medium-sized RAC.
DaimlerChrysler is about to go through the same cost-cutting, plant-closing pain that GM and Ford are going through now.
GM said final tallies for 2006 will disclose 80,000 to 90,000 fewer vehicles sold into fleet. The decline will continue into 2007. GM reported "a fairly substantial" improvement in prices on its rental-car sales in November.
How Will Fleet Cuts Affect the Auto Rental Industry?
( Page 2 of 4 )
Lower Incentives, Higher Depreciation Expense
The Big 5 are feeling the pinch—to varying degrees—with increased depreciation expense and lower incentives, as their third-quarter 2006 earnings reports and conference calls reveal.
Hertz reported a 17-percent increase in monthly per-car depreciation costs for 2006 model-year program cars. The company expects a 20-percent increase for 2007.
Dollar Thrifty President and CEO Gary Paxton said the company expects per-vehicle depreciation costs to be about 25 percent higher in 2006 than 2005. For 2007, manufacturers have again raised program vehicle depreciation rates and reduced purchase incentives.
Avis Budget Group echoed these increases. The company absorbed a 20-percent increase in per-vehicle depreciation costs for the 2006 model year and expects another 20-percent hike in 2007.
Medium-sized RACs are not immune. One estimates a $1,900 increase in cap costs on 2007 models over similar 2006 iron.
How Are They Coping?
RACs are responding by making changes on many fronts: they are modifying their mix of vehicles, increasing hold periods, reducing their overall fleet buy, increasing their risk buy and developing ancillary revenue streams.
Hertz shrank its percentage of Ford vehicles from 50 percent in 2005 to 42 percent in 2006. Hertz expects fewer program-car offerings from Ford, though the company says it hasn't struck any deals with other manufacturers to make up the difference.
Vanguard's fleet runs about 80 percent General Motors and 16 percent DaimlerChrysler. While it will continue a comparable level of DCX purchases, Vanguard said last August in its IPO filing it has "committed to purchase substantially fewer GM vehicles for the 2007 and 2008 model years."
Avis Budget reported it is reducing the GM portion of its fleet by 100,000 units from its 2005 level. The company intends on reducing its overall fleet purchases by 19 percent in 2007.
There has been speculation that the difference will be made up with Asian makes.
Enterprise reports that its percentage of Asian purchases was up in 2006 and is expected to continue in 2007. Yet overall, mid-year 2006 rental fleet registrations did not show a marked increase in foreign nameplates over 2005, nor have other major RACs revealed plans for a major foreign brand buy.
Hyundai and Toyota seem to be echoing Detroit. The Korean manufacturer's sales fell in November, due in part to its "company strategy to reduce fleet sales."
"Our allocations over the past two years have gone down with Toyota," Charlie Mullen, vice president of Ace Rent A Car, told ARN.
February/March 2007 How Will Fleet Cuts Affect the Auto Rental Industry?
( Page 3 of 4 )
More Risk, Longer Life
Without an alternate supplier, the Big Guys will be purchasing a larger portion of risk vehicles and aging their fleets.
Dollar Thrifty intends to move its percentage of risk vehicles from 35 percent in 2006 to 40 percent in 2007. The company's average hold period in 2006 was eight months; the company expects to add a month to that in 2007.
Avis Budget's risk fleet will go from 6 percent in 2006 to approximately 22 percent, while extending its fleet life from nine to approximately 10 months on average.
Hertz plans to purchase a "larger proportion" of at-risk cars. Enterprise, the risk-car kings, seem less affected by the changes. "Actually our fleet levels are higher than last year," Pam Nicholson, executive vice president and COO, told ARN. "At this point we aren't increasing months in service, though that is an option down the line."
Less Specialty, New Revenues
Avis Budget is reducing the number of specialty cars. Purchases of SUVs and other premium vehicles are down 29 percent and 15 percent respectively. Almost 50 percent of the company's risk buy now has a four-cylinder engine.
"We’ve tried to be smart about our risk buy and manage the residual exposure by what we buy rather than what we have to sell," Avis Budget COO Bob Salerno said.
Avis Budget is building other income sources. Salerno says the company sees opportunity with optional insurance, and pointed to the success of the Garmin Where2 GPS unit. "The incremental margins are substantial," said Salerno.
Consensus: Rates Need to Rise
These changes are dampening the impact of manufacturers' price increases.
Avis Budget said it was able to keep its net cost per unit to a 10-percent increase in 2006. Hertz expects net per-car depreciation costs for 2007 model-year cars to increase by about 6 percent over 2006.
However, rental rates have not kept pace with fleet costs.
A survey of the National Business Travel Association reveals that while most (64 percent) corporate travel managers reported higher average car rental rates in 2006, the greatest percentage (46.8 percent) reported an increase of less than 5 percent. Some 29 percent reported no change.
This differential between rates and fleet costs has squeezed earnings. Avis Budget's EBITDA (earnings before taxes) margin for car rental in 2006 was about 7 percent, down from more than 8 percent in 2005 and nearly 11 percent in 2004. The company says in these years pricing and fleet costs were moving in tandem.
Rental rates are expected to rise: the American Express Global Business Travel Forecast for 2007 predicts a 4- to 6-percent increase in North American corporate car rental rates.
But will that be enough to offset higher costs?
"There is no doubt we will continue to need pricing improvement to offset much higher vehicle costs," said Paxton.
"We continue to believe that, generally speaking, pricing is too low for the service we provide...and [we] are taking every opportunity to maximize pricing," added Salerno.
Meanwhile, Enterprise's tremendous buying power, risk fleet management and stellar credit rating continue to pay dividends. As a result, the company increased prices in 2006 by a miniscule .01 percent, and doesn't expect a large increase in 2007.
How Will Fleet Cuts Affect the Auto Rental Industry?
( Page 4 of 4 )
Opportunity or Threat?
At least publicly, the Big Guys see less program cars and less available inventory as healthy for the industry.
"I think it's a good thing that our suppliers are cutting back production," Nelson said. "That may seem like a contrarian thought, but industry fleet levels, fleet mix and fleet costs have historically been driven more by the auto companies' need to keep plants producing because of guaranteed labor agreements than it has been by intrinsic demand."
"That need to produce gave rise to higher fleet levels, lower fleet costs and more repurchase programs, all of which stagnated, if not impaired, realistic market pricing in our business."
"What makes your business run is high utilization," says Joe Knight, vice president of Fox Rent A Car. "If you can maintain a high utilization and keep those cars operating, there are a lot of potential catastrophes you can fend off. If you're operating with 70-percent utilization, you're dead."
The Silver Lining
Analysts agree. "The manufacturer's turmoil right now will not necessarily affect the rental industry in a negative way," says industry consultant Neil Abrams.
Up until the mid- to late-80's, guaranteed repurchase programs didn't exist. "Before then these companies were doing fine," Abrams says. "They kept on evolving with the changes in the global travel environment. They learned to make money from rental operations and buying and selling cars."
Abrams says repurchase programs fostered complacency in operational efficiency.
"I warned clients that these programs were almost like dope," Abrams says. "In what industry do you find the supplier is buying back your used inventory? It takes the risk out of the procurement decision.
"Car rental companies have to be more aware of resale markets than they are now. There's also more profit to be made from that," Abrams says.
"If they take more risk vehicles they get to choose the cars they want, and it will help residual values when they go to sell them," says Betsy Snyder, a credit analyst for Standard and Poor's. "Look at Enterprise. They take all the risk and they’re the most profitable car rental company."
GM is seeing results; it has improved residual values by 8 percent over the last year and a half.
Mullen agrees that residuals are up slightly, but it depends on the mileage of the car. "There is such a discount for higher mileage cars now because they're so plentiful," he says. "Cars with 15,000 [miles] are pretty strong. But anything over 30,000 seems to be taking a huge hit on resale."
This situation may exacerbate as fleets age out of necessity.
The Cheese Has Moved
The government cheese may not have gone away entirely, but it will certainly cost more.
In the business bestseller Who Moved My Cheese? author Dr. Spencer Johnson talks about a different kind of cheese, a business's revenue stream. Johnson says a company needs to be jolted out of its comfort zone once in a while in order to survive. It needs to be constantly challenging its business model and vigilant in analyzing and improving upon its products and services. The ever-changing marketplace is not a threat, but an opportunity.
In the auto rental industry, the cheese has moved
By Chris Brown
Fewer cars means per-vehicle depreciation costs will increase by as much as 20 percent in 2007. How are the major RAC's coping?
Could the trumpets be any louder?
The domestic automakers have declared very publicly that decreasing incentives, low-margin sales to rental fleets and vehicle repurchase programs will help return them to profitability.
For the auto rental industry, this means no more government cheese. What are the car rental "Big Five"—Hertz, Avis Budget, Dollar Thrifty, Vanguard and Enterprise—doing about it? And how will their actions affect the independent car rental operator?
Reduction in Fleet Sales Underway
Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler have all started reducing fleet sales. In 2007, this will contribute to the lowest level of auto sales in a decade, economists warn.
Ford, which posted a $5.2 billion third-quarter loss in 2006, reported a drop in fleet sales in November, on the heels of the demise of the Taurus. Even on its last wheels in 2005, the mighty fleet car sold 122,000 units into rental. By contrast, the Taurus replacements, the Five Hundred and the Fusion, sell less than 30 percent of Taurus' numbers into fleets.
DaimlerChrysler, with inventory that took an average of 80 days to turn on dealers' lots in 2006, said in November it has also reduced fleet sales.
It's no secret now that much of DaimlerChrysler's sales gains in the past two years—in the face of GM and Ford's sales slide—came with low-margin fleet sales. However, "they haven't sweetened any of their car-buy deals to help with this excess inventory," says one medium-sized RAC.
DaimlerChrysler is about to go through the same cost-cutting, plant-closing pain that GM and Ford are going through now.
GM said final tallies for 2006 will disclose 80,000 to 90,000 fewer vehicles sold into fleet. The decline will continue into 2007. GM reported "a fairly substantial" improvement in prices on its rental-car sales in November.
How Will Fleet Cuts Affect the Auto Rental Industry?
( Page 2 of 4 )
Lower Incentives, Higher Depreciation Expense
The Big 5 are feeling the pinch—to varying degrees—with increased depreciation expense and lower incentives, as their third-quarter 2006 earnings reports and conference calls reveal.
Hertz reported a 17-percent increase in monthly per-car depreciation costs for 2006 model-year program cars. The company expects a 20-percent increase for 2007.
Dollar Thrifty President and CEO Gary Paxton said the company expects per-vehicle depreciation costs to be about 25 percent higher in 2006 than 2005. For 2007, manufacturers have again raised program vehicle depreciation rates and reduced purchase incentives.
Avis Budget Group echoed these increases. The company absorbed a 20-percent increase in per-vehicle depreciation costs for the 2006 model year and expects another 20-percent hike in 2007.
Medium-sized RACs are not immune. One estimates a $1,900 increase in cap costs on 2007 models over similar 2006 iron.
How Are They Coping?
RACs are responding by making changes on many fronts: they are modifying their mix of vehicles, increasing hold periods, reducing their overall fleet buy, increasing their risk buy and developing ancillary revenue streams.
Hertz shrank its percentage of Ford vehicles from 50 percent in 2005 to 42 percent in 2006. Hertz expects fewer program-car offerings from Ford, though the company says it hasn't struck any deals with other manufacturers to make up the difference.
Vanguard's fleet runs about 80 percent General Motors and 16 percent DaimlerChrysler. While it will continue a comparable level of DCX purchases, Vanguard said last August in its IPO filing it has "committed to purchase substantially fewer GM vehicles for the 2007 and 2008 model years."
Avis Budget reported it is reducing the GM portion of its fleet by 100,000 units from its 2005 level. The company intends on reducing its overall fleet purchases by 19 percent in 2007.
There has been speculation that the difference will be made up with Asian makes.
Enterprise reports that its percentage of Asian purchases was up in 2006 and is expected to continue in 2007. Yet overall, mid-year 2006 rental fleet registrations did not show a marked increase in foreign nameplates over 2005, nor have other major RACs revealed plans for a major foreign brand buy.
Hyundai and Toyota seem to be echoing Detroit. The Korean manufacturer's sales fell in November, due in part to its "company strategy to reduce fleet sales."
"Our allocations over the past two years have gone down with Toyota," Charlie Mullen, vice president of Ace Rent A Car, told ARN.
February/March 2007 How Will Fleet Cuts Affect the Auto Rental Industry?
( Page 3 of 4 )
More Risk, Longer Life
Without an alternate supplier, the Big Guys will be purchasing a larger portion of risk vehicles and aging their fleets.
Dollar Thrifty intends to move its percentage of risk vehicles from 35 percent in 2006 to 40 percent in 2007. The company's average hold period in 2006 was eight months; the company expects to add a month to that in 2007.
Avis Budget's risk fleet will go from 6 percent in 2006 to approximately 22 percent, while extending its fleet life from nine to approximately 10 months on average.
Hertz plans to purchase a "larger proportion" of at-risk cars. Enterprise, the risk-car kings, seem less affected by the changes. "Actually our fleet levels are higher than last year," Pam Nicholson, executive vice president and COO, told ARN. "At this point we aren't increasing months in service, though that is an option down the line."
Less Specialty, New Revenues
Avis Budget is reducing the number of specialty cars. Purchases of SUVs and other premium vehicles are down 29 percent and 15 percent respectively. Almost 50 percent of the company's risk buy now has a four-cylinder engine.
"We’ve tried to be smart about our risk buy and manage the residual exposure by what we buy rather than what we have to sell," Avis Budget COO Bob Salerno said.
Avis Budget is building other income sources. Salerno says the company sees opportunity with optional insurance, and pointed to the success of the Garmin Where2 GPS unit. "The incremental margins are substantial," said Salerno.
Consensus: Rates Need to Rise
These changes are dampening the impact of manufacturers' price increases.
Avis Budget said it was able to keep its net cost per unit to a 10-percent increase in 2006. Hertz expects net per-car depreciation costs for 2007 model-year cars to increase by about 6 percent over 2006.
However, rental rates have not kept pace with fleet costs.
A survey of the National Business Travel Association reveals that while most (64 percent) corporate travel managers reported higher average car rental rates in 2006, the greatest percentage (46.8 percent) reported an increase of less than 5 percent. Some 29 percent reported no change.
This differential between rates and fleet costs has squeezed earnings. Avis Budget's EBITDA (earnings before taxes) margin for car rental in 2006 was about 7 percent, down from more than 8 percent in 2005 and nearly 11 percent in 2004. The company says in these years pricing and fleet costs were moving in tandem.
Rental rates are expected to rise: the American Express Global Business Travel Forecast for 2007 predicts a 4- to 6-percent increase in North American corporate car rental rates.
But will that be enough to offset higher costs?
"There is no doubt we will continue to need pricing improvement to offset much higher vehicle costs," said Paxton.
"We continue to believe that, generally speaking, pricing is too low for the service we provide...and [we] are taking every opportunity to maximize pricing," added Salerno.
Meanwhile, Enterprise's tremendous buying power, risk fleet management and stellar credit rating continue to pay dividends. As a result, the company increased prices in 2006 by a miniscule .01 percent, and doesn't expect a large increase in 2007.
How Will Fleet Cuts Affect the Auto Rental Industry?
( Page 4 of 4 )
Opportunity or Threat?
At least publicly, the Big Guys see less program cars and less available inventory as healthy for the industry.
"I think it's a good thing that our suppliers are cutting back production," Nelson said. "That may seem like a contrarian thought, but industry fleet levels, fleet mix and fleet costs have historically been driven more by the auto companies' need to keep plants producing because of guaranteed labor agreements than it has been by intrinsic demand."
"That need to produce gave rise to higher fleet levels, lower fleet costs and more repurchase programs, all of which stagnated, if not impaired, realistic market pricing in our business."
"What makes your business run is high utilization," says Joe Knight, vice president of Fox Rent A Car. "If you can maintain a high utilization and keep those cars operating, there are a lot of potential catastrophes you can fend off. If you're operating with 70-percent utilization, you're dead."
The Silver Lining
Analysts agree. "The manufacturer's turmoil right now will not necessarily affect the rental industry in a negative way," says industry consultant Neil Abrams.
Up until the mid- to late-80's, guaranteed repurchase programs didn't exist. "Before then these companies were doing fine," Abrams says. "They kept on evolving with the changes in the global travel environment. They learned to make money from rental operations and buying and selling cars."
Abrams says repurchase programs fostered complacency in operational efficiency.
"I warned clients that these programs were almost like dope," Abrams says. "In what industry do you find the supplier is buying back your used inventory? It takes the risk out of the procurement decision.
"Car rental companies have to be more aware of resale markets than they are now. There's also more profit to be made from that," Abrams says.
"If they take more risk vehicles they get to choose the cars they want, and it will help residual values when they go to sell them," says Betsy Snyder, a credit analyst for Standard and Poor's. "Look at Enterprise. They take all the risk and they’re the most profitable car rental company."
GM is seeing results; it has improved residual values by 8 percent over the last year and a half.
Mullen agrees that residuals are up slightly, but it depends on the mileage of the car. "There is such a discount for higher mileage cars now because they're so plentiful," he says. "Cars with 15,000 [miles] are pretty strong. But anything over 30,000 seems to be taking a huge hit on resale."
This situation may exacerbate as fleets age out of necessity.
The Cheese Has Moved
The government cheese may not have gone away entirely, but it will certainly cost more.
In the business bestseller Who Moved My Cheese? author Dr. Spencer Johnson talks about a different kind of cheese, a business's revenue stream. Johnson says a company needs to be jolted out of its comfort zone once in a while in order to survive. It needs to be constantly challenging its business model and vigilant in analyzing and improving upon its products and services. The ever-changing marketplace is not a threat, but an opportunity.
In the auto rental industry, the cheese has moved
miércoles, 28 de marzo de 2007
Alianza estrategica Vaguard / Europcar
Vanguard posee una flota de más de 43.000 vehículos en Europa y en 2005 alcanzó una facturación de 405 millones de euros, con más de dos millones de contratos de alquiler. La empresa opera a través de las marcas National Car Rental y Alamo Rent a Car en Reino Unido, donde aportan el 84% de la cifra de negocio, en Alemania, en la que alcanzan el 9% de la facturación y en Suiza.
La compra de la división europea de Vanguard por 670 millones de euros es 12,7 veces superior al resultado operacional estimado para 2006. Tras la compra, Europcar, National Car Rental y Alamo Rent a Car serán gestionadas como redes comerciales separadas, aunque se alcancen "importantes sinergias" entre ellas, principalmente en lo referente a la flota.
Por otro lado, Europcar y Vanguard también han rubricado un acuerdo de colaboración, mediante el que Europcar podrá desarrollar una red comercial "de primer nivel" en Norteamérica.
Así, la firma francesa podrá satisfacer su deseo de "ofrecer a sus clientes una solución de movilidad en todos los países del mundo, sobre todo en Norteamérica". De esta forma, la empresa pondrá en marcha una red comercial bajo las marcas National Car Rental y Alamo Rent a Car.
La compra de la división europea de Vanguard por 670 millones de euros es 12,7 veces superior al resultado operacional estimado para 2006. Tras la compra, Europcar, National Car Rental y Alamo Rent a Car serán gestionadas como redes comerciales separadas, aunque se alcancen "importantes sinergias" entre ellas, principalmente en lo referente a la flota.
Por otro lado, Europcar y Vanguard también han rubricado un acuerdo de colaboración, mediante el que Europcar podrá desarrollar una red comercial "de primer nivel" en Norteamérica.
Así, la firma francesa podrá satisfacer su deseo de "ofrecer a sus clientes una solución de movilidad en todos los países del mundo, sobre todo en Norteamérica". De esta forma, la empresa pondrá en marcha una red comercial bajo las marcas National Car Rental y Alamo Rent a Car.
Nuevo Nissan TIIDA, Disfrutelo Solo en National / Alamo
Nissan Tiida recibió el galardón como “Vehículo Interamericano del año 2007”, otorgado por la Federación Interamericana de Periodistas Automotores (FIPA), la cual agrupa a más de 70 periodistas de 19 países de Latino América y el Caribe, incluyendo a México y Estados Unidos.
El modelo disponible en 81 países, también ostenta los premios “Automóvil del año 2006” en China, “Mejor Automóvil Compacto” y “Mejor Automóvil Pequeño Japonés”, en Medio Este. Nissan Tiida encabezó la categoría del Vehículo Interamericano 2006, compitiendo con 58 modelos del segmento de vehículos de pasajeros que incluye a Toyota, Mercedes Benz y BMW. Por vez primera, Nissan es galardonada con el premio más importante que otorga la FIPA - organización periodística regional.
En sencilla ceremonia, Atsuo Kosaka, Director de Nissan Latino América y el Caribe (NLAC) recibió el premio de manos de Mauricio Frigati, Presidente de FIPA, quien estuvo acompañado por representantes de medios de comunicación latinoamericanos y del Caribe, autoridades oficiales y personalidades locales de la República Dominicana.
El modelo disponible en 81 países, también ostenta los premios “Automóvil del año 2006” en China, “Mejor Automóvil Compacto” y “Mejor Automóvil Pequeño Japonés”, en Medio Este. Nissan Tiida encabezó la categoría del Vehículo Interamericano 2006, compitiendo con 58 modelos del segmento de vehículos de pasajeros que incluye a Toyota, Mercedes Benz y BMW. Por vez primera, Nissan es galardonada con el premio más importante que otorga la FIPA - organización periodística regional.
En sencilla ceremonia, Atsuo Kosaka, Director de Nissan Latino América y el Caribe (NLAC) recibió el premio de manos de Mauricio Frigati, Presidente de FIPA, quien estuvo acompañado por representantes de medios de comunicación latinoamericanos y del Caribe, autoridades oficiales y personalidades locales de la República Dominicana.
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