Hertz Bidding War Winner Is Certares and Knighthead in an Auction
Photo Credit: A Hertz rental car shuttle as seen in Los Angeles on July 10, 2010. Certares and Knighthead won the auction to lead Hertz out of bankruptcy. Flickr.com / Atomic Taco
Skift Take
Now that the investor winners and losers are clear, Hertz is tasked with the even harder job of retooling the business to adapt to a diminished business travel environement — at least in the short term.
In a court-sanctioned auction process, the Knighthead Capital Management, Certares Opportunities and Apollo Capital Management won a court-approved auction to lead Hertz out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The group, subject to a bankruptcy court hearing slated for Friday, would fund $2.9 billion of stock investments in Hertz, issue $1.5 billion in preferred stock to Apollo, and execute an offering of $1.63 billion of common stock for existing Hertz shareholders.
The deal announced Wednesday is the culmination of a bidding war that began in early March between the Knighthead Capital Management-Certares Management group and rivals Centerbridge Partners, Warburg Pincus and Dundon Capital Partners, which each traded a couple of rival bids. At various junctures, the competing bids received the blessing of Hertz management.
Given the previous back and
