Hertz Bidding War Winner Is Certares and Knighthead in an Auction


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