Hertz Shares Rise on Plan to Buy Back $2 Billion of Stock

(Bloomberg) — Hertz Global Holdings Inc. plans to repurchase as much as $2 billion of its common stock, the latest move to realign its finances just months after exiting bankruptcy protection.

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The rental-car company’s shares rose 6% to $25.30 at 9:36 a.m. in New York.

The buyback is effective immediately, the company said in a statement Monday. It initially will include the remaining $200 million that was authorized for repurchase at the time of Hertz’s Nasdaq listing earlier this month.

The Estero, Florida-based company last week announced a plan to buy back almost $1.9 billion in preferred stock as part of a broader initiative to replace more expensive bankruptcy-era financing with cheaper debt. On Nov. 17 it sold a $1.5 billion high-yield bond in part to repay preferred equity provided by Apollo Global Management Inc. as it emerged from bankruptcy earlier this year.

Additionally, Hertz said it would keep its net corporate leverage no greater than 1.5 times. Its shares trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol HTZ.

(Updates share price in second paragraph.)