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Hertz in tie-up with Citibank, HSBC

Anand Krishnamoorthy

NEW DELHI, Dec. 6

GLOBAL car renting company Hertz is resuming its Indian operations after a two-year break and has tied up with HSBC Bank and Citibank to promote its products to its card holders, Hertzs franchisee has said.

From January, these banks will promote our products and inform their card holders about Hertz, Mr Rajiv Vij, Chief Executive Officer of Carzonrent (India) Pvt. Ltd. told Business Line.

After a two-year suspension of operations in India, Hertz signed a contract in September with Mr Vij-promoted Carzonrent (India) Pvt. Ltd. for resumption of operations.

Carzonrent is now the master franchisee for the $5-billion Hertz International, the worlds leading car rental company and owned by auto giant Ford Motor Co.

Carzonrent, by virtue of being the master franchisee, has the powers to appoint sub franchisees anywhere in India.

Hertz is talking to certain leading hotel chains, like the Taj group of hotels, and airline companies to forge a tie up and offer complete holiday packages for corporate clients and even families.

Our idea is to offer total solutions wherein Hertz would provide road transport, our associate airline would take the customer to whichever destination he wants and our associate hotel would offer accommodation, Mr Vij said.

HSBC and Citibank would inform its credit and other card holders about similar offerings of Hertz, thereby promoting the programme.

According to Mr Vij, Indias car rental market is estimated around Rs 3,000 crore and like in many other industries, the unorganised sector has the largest share.

The organised sector, worth about Rs 200 crore, has international brands like Hertz, Budget, Europcar and Avis. Mr Vij said the company is planning to expand to 32 cities in the next 18 months, from the current level of four cities. The cities in which H ertz is currently operating are Delhi, Bombay, Pune and Bangalore.

In the next three months, we would start at Chennai, Calcutta, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, Mr Vij said.

Hertz now has 123 cars, which is the fleet that Carzonrent had and that includes cars like Matiz, Santro, City, Lancer, Ikon, Corsa and Astra.#In the next one year, we will at least 600 cars, he said.

Plans for fleet management: Vij said the company is also planning to do fleet management for companies and is currently in talks with two large companies to manage its fleet. When Hertz manages fleet, it would provide company executives with a car, a cha uffeur, the insurance of the car and management of its services, he said.

It may be recalled that Maruti Udyog Ltd., the countrys largest car manufacturer, entered fleet management business under the N2N brand name.

The market is so big that it can definitely afford a few more players, he said.

Hertz is also in talks with the Airport Authority of India and the Indian Railways to be present in select airports and railway stations.