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Avis Closes France Cars Buyout to Boost Global Presence

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Rental & leasing services provider Avis Budget Group, Inc. (CAR - Free Report) recently completed the acquisition of privately-held car-rental company France Cars for an undisclosed amount. The transaction marks a concerted effort by Avis Budget to augment its global presence.

France Cars makes nearly €60 million in vehicle rental revenues on an annual basis. The buyout of this France-based company will add roughly 8,000 cars, vans and light trucks to Avis’ existing fleet, making it the owner of France’s second-largest fleet of light commercial vehicles.

Additionally, this acquisition will fortify Avis Budget’s existence in the local market, by adding over 60 new locations to its rental channel. Consequently, this complements the company’s goal of enhancing its services to the local residents, as it caters to all sorts of customers including leisure travelers, entrepreneurs and multinationals. Avis Budget outperformed the Zacks categorized Business Services industry with an average return of 2.7% in the last three months compared with 0.5% for the latter.



In tune with its expansion strategy, Avis Budget purchased Maggiore Group, Italy’s fourth largest vehicle rental company, last year. Some other deals that highlight its focus on international expansion include its partnership with Aeroflot, the largest Russian Carrier; a deal with TrueCar, and the partnership with Innovative Funding Services to extend its car sales program to Oregon, Utah, Missouri and Oklahoma.

Envisioning strong travel trends for both leisure and commercial travelers and projecting sustained expansion of these trends, we believe that Avis Budget’s various acquisitions and purchase of other licensees will enhance its operational foothold in global markets. The company’s fundamental drivers, such as sustained productivity growth, implementation of pricing initiatives and potential revenue-generating synergies from its various acquisitions bode well for the future.

Avis Budget currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the same industry include Everi Holdings Inc. (EVRI - Free Report) , RPX Corporation and SPS Commerce, Inc. (SPSC - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Everi has long-term earnings growth expectation of 20%.

RPX Corporation has beaten estimates thrice in the trailing four quarters for an average positive earnings surprise of 18.3%.

SPS Commerce has long-term earnings growth expectation of 22.5% and has beaten estimates in each of the trailing four quarters for an average positive earnings surprise of 44.2%.

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