The French car rental company Europcar apparently has a multi-billion dollar takeover offer from the car manufacturer Volkswagen declined. The VW group offered 44 euro cents per share earlier this month, reported the Bloomberg news agency on Wednesday, referring to people familiar with the matter. That would correspond to a company valuation of around 2.2 billion euros.
A Volkswagen spokesman did not want to comment on the report when asked. Last year, media reports said the Wolfsburg-based company had an interest in bringing the French back into the group after they had sold them to financial investors in 2006.
VW wants to get access to Europcar’s infrastructure and technology with a takeover, Bloomberg said. VW is currently not considering an increased offer – but Europcar think the offer is too low. Volkswagen could expand its platform for mobility offers such as car sharing and car leasing with the car rental company suffering from the pandemic.
In response to the news, Europcar shares rose by a good 6 percent to almost EUR 0.42 in Paris. On the market, it even went a cent higher, which corresponds to a surcharge of 9.47 percent.
After the market closed, the French spoke up. The board of directors recently examined an offer for 44 cents per share and considered the price to be too low, according to a statement published in Paris. Who was interested was not disclosed.