Shares of Avis Budget Group began trading on the New York Stock Exchange today, following the completed spin-offs of most of parent company Cendant Corp.'s diverse operations.
Cendant Corp.'s shareholders last week voted to change the company's name to the Avis Budget Group and also approved a reverse 1-for-10 stock split for trading today. The company also has launched a new Web site, avisbudgetgroup.com.
The company also spun off Orbitz, Galileo parent company Travelport and the Wyndham Hotel Group.
Overall, the car rental industry is moving toward nearly all its major players becoming public companies that have car rental as a major focus as opposed to being a small part of a larger corporate group. Vanguard Car Rental Group, parent of the National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car brands, filed for an initial public offering in August
(BTNonline, Aug. 3), and Hertz Global Holdings did the same in July
(BTN, July 31). The Dollar Thrifty Rental Group already is a publicly traded company, leaving Enterprise Rent-A-Car as the sole major supplier not to fall into that category.