Pomerantz Law Firm Announces the Filing of a Class Action Against Avis Budget Group, Inc. and Certain Officers – CAR

/EIN News/ -- NEW YORK, April 29, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Avis Budget Group, Inc. (“Avis Budget” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: CAR) and certain officers. The class action, filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey,  and docketed under 25-cv-03332 , is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities other than Defendants that purchased or otherwise acquired Avis Budget securities between February 16, 2024 and February 10, 2025, both dates inclusive (the “Class Period”), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants’ violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials.

If you are an investor who purchased or otherwise acquired Avis Budget securities during the Class Period, you have until June 24, 2025, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Danielle Peyton at newaction@pomlaw.com or 646-581-9980 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 7980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased. 

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

Avis Budget, together with its subsidiaries, provides car and truck rentals, car sharing, and ancillary products and services to businesses and consumers in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia, and Australasia.  Among other services, the Company operates the Avis brand, which offers vehicle rental and other mobility solutions to commercial and leisure segments of the travel industry; the Zipcar brand, a car sharing network; and the Budget brand, a supplier of vehicle rental and other mobility solutions focused primarily on more value-conscious customers.  According to the Company, its global rental fleet totaled approximately 695,000 vehicles in 2024.

With hundreds of thousands of vehicles in its rental fleet, effective fleet management is critical to Avis Budget’s profitability.  This includes, among other things, ensuring proper fleet rotation—i.e., the replacement of older vehicles in a rental fleet with newer models.  To execute this process effectively, a company must rotate its vehicles at an appropriate pace.  If rotation is too gradual, older models may begin depreciating in value even as their maintenance costs steadily increase.  Conversely, if rotation is too accelerated, a company risks prematurely removing vehicles before they have reached the end of their “useful lives”—the period during which the vehicles have recoverable value.

In discussing the significance of fleet rotation to its business and profitability, Avis Budget has stated that “[h]ow you buy cars and deliver them into your business and then exit cars out at the proper time at the right place is extremely critical” and, when analyzing buying and selling fleet vehicles, “one of the more important and overlooked aspects is how you rotate your fleet” given that “it allows you to have or maintain a certain age level or mileage level that is both operationally prudent from an efficiency standpoint as it turns out to be in light vehicle costs as well as from a customer acceptance. And we’ve been doing that.”

In the years following the Covid-19 pandemic, due to a shortage of fleet supply, automobile rental companies were required to purchase fleet vehicles at higher prices than historic norms.  To address this challenge, Avis Budget decelerated its fleet rotation by maintaining vehicles within its rental fleet for a longer period of time.  As the Company stated in an earnings call held with investors and analysts to discuss its Q4 2024 results (the “Q4 2024 Earnings Call”), this practice purportedly “allowed [the Company] to depreciate vehicles across a flatter portion of the residual value curve and manage [its] fleet purchase to an appropriate return on invested capital.”

However, in the fourth quarter of 2024, prices for vehicles model year 2025 began returning to normalized levels.  In response, unbeknownst to investors, Avis Budget implemented a “change in strategy to significantly accelerate fleet rotations,” purportedly designed to “create more certainty in [Avis Budget’s] fleet costs and better position [the Company] for sustainable growth for 2025 and beyond.”

The Complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company’s business, operations, and prospects.  Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Avis Budget crafted and implemented a plan to significantly accelerate its fleet rotation in the fourth quarter of 2024; (ii) the foregoing acceleration shortened the useful life of the majority of the Company’s vehicles in the Americas segment, thereby reducing their recoverable value; (iii) as a result, Avis Budget would be forced to recognize billions of dollars in impairment charges and incur substantial losses; (iv) all the foregoing was likely to, and did, have a significant negative impact on the Company’s financial results; (v) accordingly, Avis Budget’s financial and/or business prospects were overstated; and (vi) as a result, Defendants’ public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On February 11, 2025, Avis Budget issued a press release reporting its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2024.  Among other items, Avis Budget reported a loss of $1.96 billion, or $55.66 per share, for the quarter, compared to a profit of $259 million, or $7.10 per share, for the same period in the prior year.  Avis Budget attributed these results to “a change in strategy to significantly accelerate fleet rotations, which resulted in shortening the useful life of the majority of our vehicles in the Americas segment[,]” causing “a one-time non-cash impairment of $2.3 billion and other non-cash related charges of $180 million.” 

The press release also announced that the Company’s Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”), Defendant Joseph A. Ferraro (“Ferraro”), “will transition from CEO to Board Advisor, effective June 30, 2025” and that “Brian Choi, the Company’s Chief Transformation Officer, will take over as CEO, effective July 1, 2025.”

On this news, Avis Budget’s stock price fell $6.12 per share, or 6.82%, to close at $83.59 per share on February 11, 2025.

Then, on February 12, 2025, Avis Budget hosted the Q4 2024 Earnings Call.  During the Q&A portion of the Q4 2024 Earnings Call, Defendant Ferraro indicated that the Company was aware that accelerating fleet rotation would likely result in a significant impairment charge.  Specifically, when asked to discuss the competitive landscape of the automobile rental industry in the wake of the normalizing price levels of vehicles model year 2025, Defendant Ferraro responded, in relevant part, “I can only comment on what we’re trying to do as far as our fleet rotation. None of us took that impairment slightly, and we thought long and hard about it.”

Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered billions of dollars in damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com.

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