Hertz has "made substantial progress towards our goal to obtaining antitrust clearance" to pursue an acquisition of Dollar Thrifty, including a planned divestiture of its Advantage Rent-a-Car subsidiary, CEO Mark Frissora said Thursday during the company's quarterly earnings call.
Though Hertz in October withdrew a bid to acquire Dollar Thrifty, the company has continued to seek Federal Trade Commission clearance to initiate a buy.
Hertz has "agreed on the material terms of a divestiture of our Advantage business with a potential buyer and have provided those terms to the FTC staff," according to Frissora, who did not disclose the potential buyer. "We are optimistic this divestiture will satisfy the FTC staff," Frissora added.
Hertz now is working "on the next steps toward obtaining a final consent order from the FTC," according to Frissora.
Hertz reported a $56.3 million net loss for the first three months of 2012, compared with a $128.9 million loss for the same period last year.
Despite a nearly 4% decline in worldwide rental rate revenue per transaction day, rental car revenues grew 10% year over year to $1.66 billion, thanks to an increase of nearly 7% in transaction days.
Frissora said that U.S. on-airport corporate pricing fell 3.6%. Hertz executives expected rental car demand in the U.S. to remain strong throughout the second quarter.
Source: Business Travel News