Europcar Mobility Group completes financing scheme to ensure restart post-pandemic

As part of the continuation of its recently published cost-saving and cash preservation plan, Europcar Mobility Group has announced the completion of a financing scheme of €307 million, aimed to secure its liquidity to face the COVID-19 crisis and meet the anticipated fleet and corporate financing needs to restart operations.

Features of the scheme include:

• A € 22 million term loan, signed with the Group’s main French and international banks, benefiting from a 90 per cent guarantee from the French State via Bpifrance
  • This facility will have an initial maturity of one year, with an up to five-year extension option decided by Europcar (up to May 2026), subject to customary mandatory repayment provisions
  • Condition: no dividend payments in 2020 and 2021 and subject to a three times net corporate leverage thereafter
• New financing facilities for the Group’s Spanish subsidiaries (Europcar Spain and Goldcar Spain), totalling € 67.25 million, signed with Bankia and BBVA benefiting from a 70 per cent guarantee from the Spanish State. These new facilities will have three-year maturity, and proceeds are expected to fund both fleet and corporate needs
• A € 20 million Incremental RCF tranche (to increase the facility from € 650 million to € 670 million) – provided by French banks which have obtained a guarantee from Eurazeo through a sub-risk participation.

All these new financing facilities, together with its existing financing framework, have been structured with regard to the current pandemic situation to allow the Group to face the significant business impacts resulting from lockdowns and travel restrictions everywhere it operates, while allowing to “progressively resume its activities post COVID-19 crisis”.

The Group remains in negotiation in other corporate countries on potential State Guarantee loans to reinforce its liquidity within the global financing framework.

Caroline Parot, Chairwoman of Europcar Mobility Group Management Board, said: “These new financing lines will allow us to secure and progressively resume our activities once local economies restart and begin to recover. Our group is actively preparing for this restart, taking into account the new standards and customer expectations that will most likely stem from the crisis.

“Over the coming months, given the uncertainties remaining ahead of us, we will actively continue our efforts to streamline our cost base and adapt our capital and debt structure to the evolutions of the business environment, with agility and flexibility.

“We are ready to serve our customers and to help communities and businesses move safely in tomorrow’s world, building on our expertise, leadership and the extraordinary dedication of our employees, and relying on our purpose: offering attractive alternative solutions to vehicle ownership, in a responsible and sustainable way.”