THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 29, 1996 TAG: 9606290209
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: 39 lines
Car rental company Avis Inc. is near an agreement to be acquired by motel and real estate franchiser HFS Inc. for about $800 million, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The deal could be announced as early as Monday, the newspaper said.
Word of the impending purchase follows reports early this month that HFS was in talks with Avis. At the time, Avis would only confirm that it had received an unsolicited proposal from a publicly held company but would not name the company or elaborate.
Janis Jarosz, a spokeswoman for HFS Inc., declined to comment Friday when contacted by The Associated Press. A message left at employee-controlled Avis was not immediately returned.
Talks between the two companies have progressed rapidly in recent weeks, and General Motors Corp., which controls 29 percent of Avis, is backing the deal, the Journal said, citing unidentified sources. GM spokeswoman Toni Simonetti declined to comment.
HFS, the nation's largest hotel and real estate franchiser, is interested in Avis for its franchising operations and reservations system.
Avis completed a $15 million processing center in Virginia Beach in March. About 475 people work in its reservations, collections, support services and administration departments. The company expects the payroll to expand to 500 by the end of the summer.
The holdings of HFS, which is based in Parsippany, N.J., include Days Inn, Ramada, Howard Johnson and Travelodge. Avis, based in Garden City, N.Y., has been largely owned by its employees since 1987. MEMO: IN VIRGINIA BEACH
Avis has 475 employees at its Virginia Beach processing center, which
opened in March. The center, which handles reservations and other
administrative services, will employ 500 workers by the end of the
summer. by CNB