With rental giant Hertz trying desperately to avoid bankruptcy, some analysts believe that there’s more at stake here than the financial wellbeing of the company and its employees.
In fact, Benchmark Co analyst Michael Ward thinks that should a large portion of the Hertz fleet undergo a “fire sale”, such an act would negatively impact the used car market, which has been hit hard in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Hertz is currently busy negotiating with creditors, while seeking U.S. government support in order to avoid having to file for bankruptcy, said CEO Kathryn Marinello in an interview last week.
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The car rental company has already missed lease payments related to its vehicles and has until May 4 to either make them or convince lenders to wave a potential default, reports Bloomberg.
“The risk for the auto sector occurs if the creditors of the debt using the rental vehicles as security decide to liquidate the fleet to repay the bonds,” said Ward. “A fire sale of a significant portion of the Hertz fleet could add to the price volatility in the used vehicle market.”
Ever since the U.S. economy began shutting down in mid-March, used car prices at auctions have gone down, with values expected to remain low for at least another few months, while “dealers and rental car companies sell down inventory to adjust to lower demand”.
As of last week, Hertz was looking at $17 billion worth of debt, which includes $3.7 billion of corporate bonds and loans, plus $13.4 billion of vehicle-backed notes. The company’s shares fell by 13% last Wednesday, with its stock dropping a total of 73% over the past three months.
