Europcar Mobility Group has acquired a 100% stake in Fox Rent a Car, providing it with a direct presence in the US as it looks to spearhead future market developments.

Caroline Parot, chief executive officer of Europcar Mobility Group

Europcar already has a 27% market share in Europe and the latest acquisition, the last under its M&A programme embarked on three years ago, forms a key part of the roll-out of its SHIFT 2023 strategic roadmap to reach €4bn revenues and a 15 million active customer base by 2023.

Fox Rent A Car operates a network of 21 corporate stations and 100+ affiliates, with a fleet of approximately 18,000 vehicles. In 2018, Fox Rent A Car generated around $280m revenue. The rental firm will be used as the platform for the Europcar Mobility Group’s future developments in the USA, aided by its strong ground presence in 15 of the 25 key US airports, enabling development of Europcar Mobility Group’s B2B and leisure businesses via its international rental brands: Europcar, InterRent and Goldcar.

Caroline Parot, chief executive officer of Europcar Mobility Group, said: “The acquisition of Fox Rent A Car, one of the largest independent players in the US car rental market, is the last key step in our transformational M&A programme, which enabled us to become a truly global mobility service company.

“As the leader of car rental in Europe with a 27% market share and a major player in the fast-evolving mobility ecosystem, in line with our SHIFT 2023 ambition, Fox Rent A Car’s integration will be the platform for our future developments in the USA, giving us access to the largest car rental and mobility services market in the world, as well as the opportunity to serve our leisure and corporate customers globally, everywhere we operate, be it directly or via our franchisees & Chinese, Indian, Japanese and Canadian partners.

“This will greatly strengthen our ability to serve our customer base on a global scale, thanks the strong ground presence of Fox Rent A Car in 15 of the 25 key US airports, notably making our portfolio of services to B2B international key accounts even more competitive.”

Mike Jaberi and Allen Rezapour, co-managing directors of Fox Rent A Car, also commented: “We look forward to beginning to work closely with our new European colleagues over the coming months, with the objective of progressively implementing fruitful inbound and outbound business synergies with Europcar Mobility Group’s powerful brands.

“We are confident that we have very promising perspectives ahead of us.”