Volkswagen wants to become the leading provider of individual mobility in the electric and fully connected age. As part of its efforts to achieve this, the company is buying back the car rental company Europcar for EUR 2.5 billion. VW will own 66% of the shares. Other buyers are the asset management company Attestor and the Dutch conglomerate and official VW importer Pon Holdings. The deal is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2022 at the earliest and must be approved by the competition authorities. VW sold Europcar to the French financial investment company Eurazeo for EUR 1.26 billion in 2006. The majority of the company is currently owned by a series of hedge funds. VW anticipates that buying back (link in German) the company will, first and foremost, bring it access to Europcar’s technology and infrastructure, enabling it to increase its offering of car sharing and other mobility models. From a strategic perspective, VW is likely to be less interested in the classic car rental business. Europcar operates more than 3,500 locations in over 140 countries and has a fleet of more than 350,000 vehicles, according to figures from 2019. The company serves more than five million customers each year.
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