Bidding for Hertz: Leveraged Buyout Case
Bidding for Hertz: Leveraged Buyout Case
The dual-track process used by Ford to initiate “consideration of strategic alternatives” makes the bidding process for Hertz more difficult. The bidding group has to spend more time to gather more information required for the process. To be able to give out an acceptable price, which maximizes the value for Ford, the cost the group has to put to buyout is also higher. Longer time to collect the information means the group lose its competitive advantages to competitors since the information they got, also is revealed by the competitors.
We believe Hertz is an ideal leveraged buyout target because it has most of the criterias required. Hertz has a strong and stable free cash flow which is from its car rental and equipment rental revenue. It also has the operational improvement if it is bought by the group. The debt level of Hertz is high, so the group should have some changes to make the debt rate lower.
Hertz’s two business segments presented large opportunities for operational improvement. The rental car business segment can be increased in revenue by having some logical strategies to change the key drivers such as the number of transactions, the length of each rental, revenue per rental day, and fleet utilization. The other business segment, equipment rental is inefficient use of capital. Compared to its competitors RSC and United Rentals, the return were expected to be 85% and 116%, respectively; HERC’s return was projected to be 70.5% only. Therefore, if the group can make some changes to help it improved, it can be a big value-creating opportunity.
The key assumptions that underlie the Bidding Group’s projections are very realistic. They project the car-rental growth to slow to 4.5% which is a very conservative, yet realistic projection. They also project $400 million in operational savings. Exhibit #9 has the largest impact on returns as it projects a big savings. Exhibit #8 and #10 would also have an impact on
The dual-track process used by Ford to initiate “consideration of strategic alternatives” makes the bidding process for Hertz more difficult. The bidding group has to spend more time to gather more information required for the process. To be able to give out an acceptable price, which maximizes the value for Ford, the cost the group has to put to buyout is also higher. Longer time to collect the information means the group lose its competitive advantages to competitors since the information they got, also is revealed by the competitors.
We believe Hertz is an ideal leveraged buyout target because it has most of the criterias required. Hertz has a strong and stable free cash flow which is from its car rental and equipment rental revenue. It also has the operational improvement if it is bought by the group. The debt level of Hertz is high, so the group should have some changes to make the debt rate lower.
Hertz’s two business segments presented large opportunities for operational improvement. The rental car business segment can be increased in revenue by having some logical strategies to change the key drivers such as the number of transactions, the length of each rental, revenue per rental day, and fleet utilization. The other business segment, equipment rental is inefficient use of capital. Compared to its competitors RSC and United Rentals, the return were expected to be 85% and 116%, respectively; HERC’s return was projected to be 70.5% only. Therefore, if the group can make some changes to help it improved, it can be a big value-creating opportunity.
The key assumptions that underlie the Bidding Group’s projections are very realistic. They project the car-rental growth to slow to 4.5% which is a very conservative, yet realistic projection. They also project $400 million in operational savings. Exhibit #9 has the largest impact on returns as it projects a big savings. Exhibit #8 and #10 would also have an impact on