PE Firms Take Partial Exit from Hertz

Private equity investors Clayton, Dubilier & Rice; The Carlyle Group and Bank of America Merrill Lynch sold a combined 50 million shares in Hertz Global Holdings Inc., about 24% of their holding in the company, Reuters reported. The partial exit by the company’s three top shareholders sent shares down 3% in after-market trading, Reuters reported. After the stock sale, the three together would continue to hold a 39% stake in Hertz.

(Reuters) – Hertz Global Holdings Inc said its top three shareholders sold about a quarter of their combined stake in the car rental company, sending its shares down 3 percent in trading after the bell.

Clayton, Dubilier & Rice LLC; The Carlyle Group and Bank of America Merrill Lynch together sold about 50 million Hertz Global shares, about 24 percent of their holding in the company, Hertz said in a statement.

After the stock sale, the three together would continue to hold a 39 percent stake in hertz, down from their earlier holding of more than half of the company’s outstanding shares.

Hertz also forecast a narrower-than-expected first-quarter loss on better revenue as prices rose with the fewer cars available for rent.

The company sees first-quarter worldwide revenue up 6-7 percent at $1.80-$1.81 billion.

Analysts, on average, were expecting revenue of $1.76 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company expects an adjusted first-quarter loss of about $22.2-$17.3 million compared with analysts estimates of a loss of $28.45 million.

Shares of the company were down 3 percent at $15.73 in extended trade. They closed at $16.27 on Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Divya Sharma; Editing by Joyjeet Das)