Another century-old American store went bankrupt.

Hertz Global Holdings, Inc., the US car rental giant, filed for bankruptcy protection on the evening of 22nd Eastern time.

Affected by the news, the share price of Hertz rental car once fell more than 50% in after-hours trading. The share price of Hertz rental car closed down nearly 7.5% on Friday.

102The share price of the elderly store plummeted.86%

Evaporation of market capitalization180亿

It is understood that Hertz's business, founded in 1918, has been hit as hard as the US aviation industry by the US government's travel restrictions and home orders.

Because a large portion of its revenue comes from car rental services at airports, government restrictions on travel have cut off air and ground traffic, hurting the car rental market. The income has almost disappeared.

Hertz Rental's share price has fallen from its peak on Feb. 21, along with falling revenues. As of may 23, the share price of Hertz car rental had plummeted 86%, wiping out $2.48 billion (17.6 billion yuan) in total market value.

According to foreign media, bankruptcy will make Hertz one of the highest-profile corporate debt defaults caused by the epidemic affecting Americans' travel. The company currently has nearly $19 billion (135 billion yuan) in debt and defaulted last month. Of that amount, $4.3 billion is for corporate bonds and loans, and its companies also hold $14.4 billion in debt backed by cars.

Be "abandoned" by creditors and the US government

近4Ten thousand people are facing unemployment.

Hertz car rental filed for bankruptcy mainly because it failed to reach a consensus with major lenders to suspend repayments, according to Wall Street Daily Edition, citing sources familiar with the matter.

It is understood that last month, Hertz car rental failed to repay several large car rental payments due in April. Hertz has been negotiating with creditors to extend the debt. Regrettably, creditors refused to extend the concession period.

The extension and exemption agreement for Hertz's outstanding payments expired on Friday and it had to pay $400m from holders of its asset-backed securities (ABS). In the end, Hertz could only declare default and file for bankruptcy protection.

Hertz said earlier that bankruptcy could be avoided if the company received relief from creditors or successful financial assistance from the U. S. government.

However, Hertz is not as lucky as American Airlines to apply for a $50 billion bailout from the U. S. government.

Hertz car rental had 38000 employees by the end of 2019, according to financial data.

In March, the car rental company took 10,000 car drivers off and cut executive pay in an effort to improve its financial woes.

Bottom crude oil and short commercial real estate

Wall Street "Wolf King" broken arm

In fact, repayment of $400 million in debt should not be a problem for major shareholders.

According to the latest data, as of May 19, 2020, Carl Icahn, the largest shareholder of Hertz car rental, still holds 41895315 shares, accounting for 38.9%. So far, the market capitalization of the holdings is about $120 million.

And Carl Icahn is known as the "wolf king" of Wall Street.

It is reported that at the historic moment just past, when the oil price was negative, Carl Icahn grabbed one or two million barrels of negative oil oil.

Even excluding the sharp rebound in crude oil prices during this period, the Wall Street Wolf King made a direct profit of $35 million in cash alone in terms of crude oil ranging from 1 million barrels to $35 a barrel.

So far, the price of crude oil has risen to around $33, which means that Wall Street Wolf King has netted nearly $70 million in crude oil alone.

Meanwhile, Carl Icahn is spending billions of dollars shorting the real estate-related CMBX 6 index. The CMBX 6 index has fallen 30 per cent since March, according to the data.

According to reports, when Hertz applied to creditors for an extension of the debt, Carl Icahn said that if the negotiations could not reach an agreement, he would not lend a helping hand and consider filing for bankruptcy protection.

According to the principle that creditors are superior to shareholders, Carl Icahn believes that after Hertz car rental goes bankrupt, shareholders will not be able to get compensation.

Hertz China responds to bankruptcy filing

The Asia-Pacific region has not received the adjustment message yet.

On May 23, in response to the "US Hertz filing for bankruptcy protection", Hertz International China customer service responded that the Asia-Pacific region had not received any adjustment news, only for the United States and Canada. Data show that Hertz is a global chain car rental brand, Hertz car rental network throughout the world in 148 countries and more than 8100 car rental stores.