Hertz Global Holdings Inc.'s (HTZ) private-equity backers are
selling their remaining $1.24 billion stake in the car-rental
company, eight years after they bought the business from Ford Motor
Co.
Private-equity funds run by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice LLC,
Carlyle Group LP (CG) and Bank of America Corp.'s (BAC) Merrill
Lynch & Co. unit have sold 49.8 million Hertz shares to Goldman
Sachs Group Inc. (GS), which will re-offer the shares to investors,
Hertz said in a press release late Monday.
The sale caps a series of large stock offerings by the investors
since they took Hertz public in 2006. It comes as Hertz's stock
trades at a five-and-a-half-year high.
Hertz's shares closed at $24.96 Monday, valuing the deal at
$1.24 billion. That would make it the 11th-biggest follow-on stock
offering this year, according to Dealogic. The shares have gained
61% the past year.
The offering follows rising broader-market values and
historically low volatility fueling a steady stream of stock
offerings. Private equity firms have been taking advantage of those
conditions, selling a record $20.5 billion in so-called follow-on
offerings in the first quarter, according to Dealogic.
The sale accounts for the investors' "entire interest" in Hertz,
except for negligible amounts of shares awarded their employees who
sat on Hertz's board, for example.
Hertz's stock was down 1.2% in recent after-hours trading. Large
stock offerings typically price at a discount to the shares' latest
close, to cushion the risk buyers take that the shares will fall
after the purchase.
Write to Matt Jarzemsky at matthew.jarzemsky@dowjones.com
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