Herbert Diess is struggling to stay in his lane. While the Volkswagen boss is facing soft sales in China, Paris-listed Europcar Mobility has rejected a 2.2 billion euro offer, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. VW was last circling around the car rental firm a year ago, before the indebted company’s hedge fund-backed restructuring.
There may be some schadenfreude in Diess’s offer: VW offloaded the business to Paris-listed buyout fund Eurazeo for 3.1 billion euros in 2006. And Europcar’s locations near airports and city centres could offer handy outlets for ride-sharing services and short-term rentals. Still, the 44 cents per share offer – a modest 13% premium to Tuesday’s closing price – would be a dear round trip. Analysts expect Europcar to make operating profit of 169 million euros in 2022.
Source: Reuters
