Report: Hertz Making Final Moves to Get DTAG Deal Approved
With the deadline approaching at the end of the week to consummate the previously announced cash tender offer to purchase all outstanding shares of common stock of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Hertz Global Holdings reportedly is making moves to gain federal approval.
A Bloomberg report on Monday indicated Hertz agreed to sell more airport locations, which may lead the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to allow the $2.6 billion acquisition of DTAG to go proceed. Two people familiar with the negotiations told Bloomberg the developments in this report.
Bloomberg reported the FTC said it’s willing to approve the transaction on the condition that Hertz sell at least a dozen extra airport counters in order to make sure the deal “doesn’t limit competition in the rental-car market,” said the people who asked Bloomberg not to be identified because the negotiations aren’t public knowledge.
The report noted the acquisition had met FTC resistance over the market share the combined company would command at airports, people familiar with the matter have told Bloomberg.
With 8,750 outlets worldwide, Hertz has more than 3,900 U.S. locations, while Dollar Thrifty has about 280 corporate-owned outlets in the U.S. and Canada, according to Bloomberg’s tally.
“It kind of feels like its heading to a conclusion,” Chris Agnew, a Connecticut-based analyst at MKM Partners LLC, told Bloomberg. “I had fairly high confidence that there might be the perception that going from four companies to three is bad, but this industry is competitive location by location, so this still will be a competitive business.”
Hertz’ tender offer was previously scheduled to expire at 5 p.m. ET on Monday. But company officials said Friday’s deadline stands unless further extended in accordance with the merger agreement and the applicable rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Except for the extension of the tender offer expiration date, officials said all other terms and conditions of the tender offer remain unchanged. The depositary for the tender offer has advised Hertz that, as of the close of business on Nov. 2, approximately 8,939,401 shares of Dollar Thrifty common stock have been tendered into and not withdrawn from the tender offer (which includes shares subject to guaranteed delivery procedures).
As previously announced on Oct, 18, Hertz agreed to extend the term of its timing agreement with the FTC until 11:59 p.m. on Friday. The company pointed out the tender offer is now scheduled to expire on the same date as the timing agreement.