Hertz Global Holdings Inc. is backing a new effort to raise $400 million that would allow it to keep its rental car fleet stocked with new vehicles for a return to business once the coronavirus pandemic eases, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The nation’s largest car-rental company filed for bankruptcy protection in May, its revenues hammered by restrictions imposed to suppress the spread of COVID-19, which has claimed more than 200,000 lives in the U.S. The new securitization deal between Donlen Corp., which supplies Hertz with cars, and Barclays Bank PLC is separate from Hertz’s search for chapter 11 financing in the form of a $1.5 billion loan that will preserve the company until business returns to normal levels. Multiple lenders are offering to provide the bankruptcy loan, Hertz lawyer Thomas Lauria of White & Case LLP said yesterday. Some potential financiers already have money riding on Hertz, but others don’t, and there are offers from potential backers willing to settle all the company’s debts, as part of the bankruptcy financing. The proposed $400 million asset-backed securitization deal might reduce Hertz’s need to draw down on a bankruptcy loan, but it won’t reduce the size of the chapter 11 financing, Lauria said.
