Former Ford entity Hertz files for $1 billion initial public offering

By John Poirier

Jul 14, 2006

(Reuters) Car rental company Hertz Global Holdings Inc. said on Friday it is planning an initial public offering of as much as $1 billion in common stock.

The IPO will be underwritten by Goldman, Sachs & Co., Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch & Co Inc, Deutsche Bank Securities and JPMorgan, according to an IPO registration statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Merrill Lynch affiliate, ML Global Private Equity Fund LP, as well as Clayton Dubilier & Rice and The Carlyle Group plan to sell shares in the IPO, according to the filing.

The private equity group bought Hertz Corp., the predecessor company, from Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F - news) in December for about $15 billion, including the assumption of debt.

In a separate regulatory filing, Hertz, based in Park Ridge, New Jersey, said it restated consolidated statements for certain items for a period between January 1, 2005, and December 20, 2005, due to an error in estimating the amount of its tax expense for repatriation of foreign earnings.

The tax expense for December 2005 should be increased by $27.5 million to $31.3 million, Hertz said. Hertz said this lowered its net income for the January-December 2005 period to $371.3 million.

In the IPO Hertz still plans to list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "HTZ."

As is customary with the filing of a preliminary offering document, Hertz did not specify the number of shares or estimate a price range for those shares. Those details can be expected in future SEC filings.

Hertz said it and its independent licensees and associates provide car rentals at about 7,600 locations in about 145 countries.

Consolidated revenues from car and equipment rentals totaled about $7.5 billion for 2005, according to the new regulatory filing.

On June 30 Hertz said it paid a special dividends of $4.32 per share to the holders, which totaled about $999.2 million, through a loan facility. It said it does not expect to pay dividends on its common stock for the foreseeable future.

The company said it plans to use the proceeds from the offering to repay a loan facility and general corporate purposes.

Hertz said it will not receive any proceeds from the sale of stock from the investor group.

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Grover C. McCoury III wrote:
> By John Poirier
>
> Jul 14, 2006
>
> (Reuters) Car rental company Hertz Global Holdings Inc. said on Friday it is planning an initial public offering of as much as $1 billion in common stock.
>
In other news, O.J. Simpson is available for commercial work, but he
needs to use a walker and be paid under the table.