Even wat achtergrond info:
Buyout firms are celebrated for their ability to take on huge debts, buy neglected companies, turn them around over the course of several years, and sell them to public investors for huge profits. Since 2001 they have delivered to their investors annualized returns in excess of 20%, and have attracted record amounts of capital to buy even bigger companies. But the quick "strip and flip" the Hertz buyout firms are pulling off makes them look more like fast-buck artists than thoughtful turnaround specialists.
The Hertz crew hasn't said how much of the company it intends to sell. But it sure hasn't been shy about backing up the Brinks truck. Three weeks before the initial IPO filing, the owners had Hertz take out a loan to pay themselves a $1 billion special dividend -- nearly half of the $2.3 billion in cash it had invested in December. So hungry were they for the cash that they collected it even before recruiting a new CEO to run the company. Needless to say, special dividends like this substantially improve the buyout firms' risk-reward prospects. Principals at the three buyout firms would not comment while the deal is in registration.
In their filing, the owners say they intend to use the new money from public stock investors to repay the $1 billion loan that paid for their dividend. They could also recoup some of the rest of the cash they put up. Regardless, they will retain majority ownership of the company after the IPO.
What the buyout firms can do quickly is use their financial might. The Hertz trio easily delivered money Ford craved. And before the purchase closed, the buyers arranged to take advantage of the strong demand for fixed-income investments by securitizing Hertz rental cars. In other words, they hocked the cars and raised $6.1 billion toward funding the buyout -- on better terms than if they had borrowed in the junk-bond market, as was common in earlier buyout waves.
The trouble is, putting up assets as collateral reduces a company's financial flexibility. That's one reason Standard & Poor's (MHP ), the credit-rating agency, downgraded Hertz from investment-grade to speculative, or junk, status after the buyout. S&P says Hertz has pledged two-thirds of its assets now, vs. just 10% before the buyout.
Hertz' new owners do have plans to strengthen the business. One strategy: to boost rentals away from airports. Such operational improvements should lift profit margins, which are down from 2000 levels, according to the preliminary prospectus. And Hertz, the world's second-largest rental car chain after Enterprise Rent-A-Car Co. with 7,600 rental locations in 145 countries, notes that it's one of the world's best-known brands. With that kind of base, the buyout boys should have room to turn around the company they've been so quick to load up with debt. Eventually.
"I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself" - Ivan Boesky.
'Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless.' - Milton Friedman