"Big 5" dominate, two ladies at the top, rescue for Hertz, Sixt pike in the carp pondT.A.I. 24 TOP News
There are over 900 car rental companies worldwide. But five giants dominate the market, two of them with female CEOs (chief executive officers): Enterprise Rent-A-Car, headed by CEO Chrissy Taylor; The Hertz Corporation, headed by CEO Paul Stone; Avis Budget Group, headed by CEO Joe Ferraro; and Europcar, which, like Enterprise, is headed by a lady CEO in Caroline Parot; and family-owned Sixt, where group CEO Erich Sixt will reportedly hand over the reins to his two sons, Alexander and Konstantin Sixt, in June 2021.
"Big 5" with 78% share of sales
The range of according to www.Rentalcars.Com over 900 car rental companies (not counting car rental brokers like Sunny Cars) ranging from "A" like Al Muftah Rent a Car (Qatar and Bahrain) to "Z" like ZOOCars in the UK.
Global sales in the car rental business in 2019 were estimated at 60 billion. US Dollar estimated. According to T.A.I.-Research on the USA, by far the largest market. Global annual growth rates were 7% before Corona. Should remain at this altitude until further notice. But the pandemic caused a sharp cut for the time being.
The quintet of top players Enterprise Rent-A-Car (fleet 630.000, worldwide 10.000 stations), The Hertz Corporation (fleet 535.000, stations 9.700), and the Avis Budget Group (600.000 vehicles, 11.000 stations) and Europcar (334.000 vehicles, 3.300 stations) and Sixt (fleet 270.000, Stations 2.200) – all figures refer to 2019 – accounted for around 78% of global rental car sales before the crisis.
2020 brought a sharp downturn for everyone worldwide, which turned the previously prevailing growth fantasies (7% per annum until 2026 was forecast) into the opposite. On average, the "Big 5" lost around two-fifths (39%) of their business volume in 2020.
Hertz soon to be sister of LATAM and Amex Business Travel
The industry hit the negative headlines when the world's number 2, Hertz, had to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2020. For market observers, this was no coincidence, because Hertz was already making losses before the crisis.
Now, according to reports from early March 2021, the company hopes to be acquired by two private equity firms: "Knighthead Capital Management" and "Certares Opportunities", which specializes in travel. The latter's portfolio includes u.A. American Express Global Business Travel, AmaWaterways or LATAM. Knighthead and Certares are looking to acquire a total of 4.2 billion. Dollars to invest (stock purchase plus capital increase). By summer, Hertz should then be out of "Chapter 11".
Sixt sets out to overtake
As it looks at the moment, the current crisis is likely to play into the hands of Sixt in particular. When Sixt opened its new U.S. Headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 2018, business magazine Forbes noted that the rental car specialist was a powerhouse in Europe but hardly known in the U.S. That is likely to change, because despite Corona, Sixt remains on the offensive in the world's largest car rental market, and with Hertz, one of the two largest competitors is for the time being ticked off, despite imminent rescue by two private equity firms.
For Sixt, this creates opportunities despite the crisis. Group CEO Erich Sixt: "Due to increasing consolidation, the U.S. Market continues to offer significant growth potential."Target size are until 2028 over 2.000 locations in the United States. By way of comparison, Sixt currently has 2 worldwide.200 locations in more than 115 countries. The US business is to be brought thereby by Sixt "on the same size as the European". To the largest single market (at present Germany) become.