Europcar Mobility Group has signed an agreement with Fox Rent A Car’s three founders to acquire a 100% stake in one of the largest independent players of the U.S. car rental market.

This strategic acquisition marks a key milestone in the roll out of SHIFT 2023, its strategic roadmap to reach 4 billion euro ($4.5 billion) revenues and 15 million active customer base by 2023. Under the leadership of Mike Jaberi and Allen Rezapour, Fox Rent A Car will be the platform for Europcar Mobility Group’s future developments in the U.S., the world’s biggest car rental and mobility market.

It will greatly strengthen the Group’s ability to serve customers on a global scale, thanks to its ground presence in key U.S. airports.

This acquisition represents a significant revenue growth opportunity for Europcar Mobility Group for two key reasons:

• travelers coming from the rest of the world account for $2.5 billion of the U.S. car rental market, by far the biggest destination for car rental customers worldwide;

• U.S. residents travelling to European markets represent a $1 billion opportunity.

These two fronts are equally important for the development of its corporate and leisure businesses, given their strong upside potential for its international rental brands: Europcar, InterRent, and Goldcar, everywhere the Group operates.

Fox Rent A Car operates a network of 21 corporate stations and over 100 affiliates. It is present in 15 of the country’s top 25 airports, with an attractive value for money price positioning, an impressive track record of organic growth (delivering an average 6.4% revenue growth p.a. between 2013 and 2018) and a fleet of approximately 18,000 vehicles.

In 2018, Fox Rent A Car generated around $280 million in revenue.

Europcar Mobility Group expects the transaction to be neutral to its earnings per share in 2020 and to become fully accretive from 2021 onwards.

The acquisition is subject to customary conditions precedent and is expected to close in the course of Q4 2019.