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Europcar logo at Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris
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Charles Platiau / REUTERS
Volkswagen is apparently getting closer to taking over the car rental company Europcar.
The Wolfsburg-based car company and the hedge funds that hold a majority stake in the French company are in advanced talks about a deal, Europcar confirmed in a corresponding report by the Reuters news agency.
The offer is said to be around 50 cents per Europcar share, which would represent an increase.
The outcome of the negotiations is not certain.
According to Reuters information, the offer still has to be approved by the supervisory bodies of both companies on Wednesday.
Volkswagen declined to comment.
The announcement encouraged investors to join Europcar.
The car rental company's share closed 3.7 percent higher, while Volkswagen stocks closed 2.1 percent lower.
Building block on the way to becoming a mobility provider
Industry experts assume that Volkswagen will use Europcar's dense network of rental stations in its plans to become a mobility provider.
The Wolfsburg-based company announced at the end of June that, together with the financial investor Attestor Limited and Pon Holdings, the largest VW importer in the Netherlands, they had put a non-binding takeover offer of 44 cents per Europcar share on the table.
The Sixt rival was valued at around 2.2 billion euros.
With an offer of 50 cents per share, Europcar would be worth 2.5 billion euros.
The first offer had been rejected by the Europcar owners - around a dozen financial investors - as too low.
Europcar will publish its business figures for the first half of the year on Wednesday, and Volkswagen will present its figures on Thursday.
The Wolfsburg-based group had sold Europcar in 2006 to the French financial investor Eurazeo, who had the takeover, including all debts, a good 3.3 billion euros.
VW justified this at the time by saying that they wanted to concentrate on the core business.
In the corona pandemic, Europcar came under pressure from the restrictions in the travel sector and had to be restructured.
Since then, several hedge funds have held the majority in the car rental company.
dab / Reuters
