Europcar has signed an agreement to acquire German rental firm Buchbinder for an undisclosed amount as it looks to accelerate its penetration of the van and truck and low-cost segments.

Caroline Parot, CEO of Europcar

Founded over 60 years ago, Buchbinder has a network of 152 stations, including 18 airport stations, and an average fleet in excess of 20,000 vehicles. According to Europcar, it’s the fifth largest car rental company in the market with a solid positioning as a low cost car rental operator, as well as a leading position in the vans and trucks segment. Buchbinder is also a present in Austria, Hungary and Slovakia and last year saw the group generate revenues of around €200m.

Europcar said the acquisition will significantly boost its nascent low cost business in Germany while the combination of Buchbinder and Europcar Germany’s vans and trucks businesses will act as a core pillar to drive the vans and trucks expansion strategy across the group.

Caroline Parot, CEO of Europcar Group, said: “The acquisition of Buchbinder is a major strategic step for the Europcar Group as it will enable us to become the #1 player in both Germany and Austria, will reinforce our presence in the SME business segment and will significantly boost both our low-cost and vans & trucks businesses in those countries.

“This landmark transaction confirms the major role we want to play in our industry’s European consolidation process. After the recent transactions with our Irish and Danish franchisees and the conclusion of this transaction, we still have a substantial pipeline of identified acquisition opportunities that we are actively pursuing in all of our business units. We stand ready to accelerate the pace of our previously announced acquisition plan to generate at least 500 million euros of additional revenues by 2020 if such opportunities materialize in the short or medium term.”

The acquisition is subject to customary conditions precedent, including the approval of antitrust authorities, and is expected to close in the second half of the year 2017.