Hertz has spoken to lenders and the US Treasury Department in a bid to avoid filing for bankruptcy. Reuters
Hertz has spoken to lenders and the US Treasury Department in a bid to avoid filing for bankruptcy. Reuters
Hertz has spoken to lenders and the US Treasury Department in a bid to avoid filing for bankruptcy. Reuters
Hertz has spoken to lenders and the US Treasury Department in a bid to avoid filing for bankruptcy. Reuters

Car rental firm Hertz in talks with government and lenders in bid to stave off bankruptcy


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Car rental giant Hertz Global Holdings is doing everything it can to preserve cash and gain leniency from its lenders to avoid a bankruptcy filing amid a collapse in the travel industry, chief executive Kathryn Marinello said.

The company has been in discussions with creditors for weeks and is still pushing the US Treasury Department to help car rental companies, which Ms Marinello says have been hit as hard as the airline sector by travellers staying at home due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are seeking the support of our lenders and banks,” said Ms Marinello, whose biggest shareholder at Hertz is billionaire investor Carl Icahn. “We are also seeking the support of the government. Yes, we can avoid bankruptcy.”

Hertz is working with several advisory firms to restructure its balance sheet, according to sources. While the company is preparing for bankruptcy as a possibility, the sources said this is a last resort.

The company's shares fell 16 per cent as of 12:30 pm in New York trading on Wednesday, paring an earlier decline of as much as 29 per cent. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported on preparations toward a possible bankruptcy.

Hertz disclosed earlier on Wednesday that it had missed substantial lease payments related to the cars it rents out. With business down about 80 per cent since the pandemic took hold, Hertz has furloughed thousands of workers without pay and looked for ways to stay afloat until travellers reemerge.

The missed payments were the clearest indication yet that Hertz hasn’t come to an agreement with its banks for forbearance. If Hertz doesn’t make payments by the end of a grace period on May 4, and enough lenders and noteholders don’t agree to waive a resulting default, the company said it could be “materially and negatively affected".

Hertz’s filing “suggests it is struggling to obtain all necessary amendments and waivers to reduce its required payments”, Joel Levington, a Bloomberg Intelligence credit analyst, said in a note.

“Should it achieve that, we think raters may view the changes in terms as tantamount to a selective default, and without the change, the potential for a corporate restructuring is possible.”

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Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.

It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.

Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.

By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.

At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.

It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.

But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.

In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties. 

 

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Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

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Major honours

ARSENAL

  • FA Cup - 2005

BARCELONA

  • La Liga - 2013
  • Copa del Rey - 2012
  • Fifa Club World Cup - 2011

CHELSEA

  • Premier League - 2015, 2017
  • FA Cup - 2018
  • League Cup - 2015

SPAIN

  • World Cup - 2010
  • European Championship - 2008, 2012
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Starring: Nader Abd Alhay, Majd Eid, Ramzi Maqdisi

Directors: Tarzan and Arab Nasser

Rating: 4.5/5

Global state-owned investor ranking by size

1.

United States

2.

China

3.

UAE

4.

Japan

5

Norway

6.

Canada

7.

Singapore

8.

Australia

9.

Saudi Arabia

10.

South Korea

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UK-EU trade at a glance

EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years

Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products

Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries

Smoother border management with use of e-gates

Cutting red tape on import and export of food

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