Buy-back by Eurazeo
In 2006, Eurazeo, the investment company, bought Europcar from the Volkswagen Group. The amount of the transaction was worth 2.4 times Europcar's turnover in 2005. The chairman of the Board of Eurazeo, Patrick Sayer, said, "We are thrilled by the acquisition of Europcar. With an initial participation of 900 million euros, it is due to become of the most significant investments for Eurazeo."[6]
In 2010, the group partnered with Daimler to launch the Car2Go service in Hamburg, Germany.[7] Philippe Germond, who had been CEO of PMU since 2009, was named CEO of Europcar from October 1, 2015.[8] In January 2015, Europcar acquired Ubeeqo, a startup that specialises in corporate carsharing.[9]
In May 2015, Europcar announced its intention to go public.[10] In early 2017, the company announced a trio of acquisitions: Milan based GuidaMi, Europcar Denmark, and Germany based Buchbinder. In December 2017, the company completed its acquisition of low-cost car rental company, Goldcar, for an enterprise value of €550 million ($616 million).[11] In April 2018, Europcar acquired Scooty, through Ubeeqo, a Belgian start-up that specialises in electric scooter-sharing in Antwerp and Brussels.[12]
In June 2018, Europcar ended its operations of its Israeli franchisee in the occupied West Bank. The American Friends Service Committee said, “After becoming a franchisee of Europcar, Israeli company Albar terminated its businesses in the occupied West Bank. Europcar thus joins other multinationals that have ended operations in illegal Israeli settlements”.[13] According to Israeli research centre Who Profits?, Albar previously had branches in two illegal settlements: Beitar Illit and Modi'in Illit.[13]
In August 2019, Europcar acquired Fox Rent A Car, one of the largest independent players in the US car rental market.[14]
In 2020, the company filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy as part of its restructuring process in France.[15]
