As part of its international growth strategy, particularly across Asia, Thrifty Car Rental, a unit of The Hertz Corporation HTZ, has expanded its operations to downtown Singapore. The car rental brand opened two noteworthy locations in downtown Singapore in Ubi Road and Alexandra Road.
Further, the company has collaborated with its longstanding franchise partner Sime Darby Services Pte Ltd to operate Thrifty Singapore’s business. A renowned name in the automotive industry, Sime Darby will cater to the mobility needs of Thrifty’s value leisure and business customers in Singapore.
Coming back to Thrifty’s Singapore locations, these branches not only bring Thrifty’s car rental services closer to the value oriented customers but also provide the benefits of choosing from a diverse fleet, competitive rates, optional extras and attractive offers for leisure as well as small and medium enterprise customers. The brand’s fleet in Singapore includes compact, economy, intermediate, standard, luxury, full-size passenger, premium and sports utility vehicles (SUV's).
Further, the expansion of the Thrifty brand to Singapore, which is a vital business and tourist place in Asia, in combination with Sime Darby's reputation provides greater opportunities of growth for the brand as it will become the obvious choice of value and convenience seeking car rental customers.
Thrifty Car Rental began expanding into Asia last year. Since then, the company has established operations in Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines. Overall, Hertz currently has over 900 Dollar and Thrifty locations across Europe and Asia.
Hertz, however, is in for fierce competition from rival Avis Budget Group Inc. CAR as the latter also remains keen on expanding its presence in Asia. This is evident from the opening of several new Avis Car Rental locations in Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia earlier this month.
Avis, which initiated its Asian operations in 1970 with the launch of its services in Hong Kong, has expanded significantly in the region with over 300 locations in Singapore, the Philippines, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Mainland China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Laos and Cambodia.
Hertz currently holds a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). The company is under the scanner for quite some time because of the ongoing review of its financial statements due to the accounting errors identified in its 2011 financial results. This entails complete review of its financial results for fiscal years 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Stocks to consider in the business services industry include Sajan Inc. SAJA sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and SouFun Holdings Ltd. SFUN with a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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