Europcar Mulls Sale, Drawing Private Equity Interest - Yahoo Finance

(Bloomberg) -- Europcar Mobility Group, one of the continent’s largest car rental agencies, is drawing interest from suitors including Apollo Global Management Inc. as it explores a potential sale of the company, people familiar with the matter said.

The company has reached out to private equity firms including Cerberus Capital Management as it starts gauging interest from potential buyers, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. Europcar, which has a market value of 666 million euros ($734 million), is working with financial advisers as it considers selling part or all of the business, according to the people.

Shares of Europcar jumped as much 9.4% in Paris morning trading Tuesday, on track for the biggest daily gain since May 2018.

No final decisions have been made and an agreement might not be reached, the people said. Representatives for Europcar didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Representatives for Apollo and Cerberus declined to comment.

Shares of Europcar have lost about three-quarters of their value through Monday since peaking in September 2017. The company’s biggest shareholder, Paris-listed investment firm Eurazeo SE, said this month it’s conducting a strategic review of options for its 29.9% stake in Europcar.

The company has been hurt by falling U.K. tourist numbers and overall economic malaise in continental Europe. Last month, it reported third-quarter results that missed analysts forecasts and lowered its outlook for the rest of the year.

Europcar operates through more than 3,500 locations in more than 140 countries, according to its website. It agreed this month to buy independent U.S. rival Fox Rent A Car to help it grow in North America.

(Updates with share movement in third paragraph.)

--With assistance from Aaron Kirchfeld and Myriam Balezou.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ed Hammond in New York at ehammond12@bloomberg.net;Dinesh Nair in London at dnair5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Scent at bscent@bloomberg.net, ;Liana Baker at lbaker75@bloomberg.net, Dinesh Nair

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