SEC Comment Letter for HERC HOLDINGS INC (HRI) (CIK 0001364479) (HRI) — Aug 14, 2006
HERC HOLDINGS INC (HRI) (CIK 0001364479)
Date: Aug. 14, 2006 · CIK: 0001364479 · Accession: 0000000000-06-038552
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File numbers found in text: 333-135782
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Mail Stop 3561 August 11, 2006 Via U.S. Mail Harold E. Rolfe, Esq. Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. 225 Brae Boulevard Park Ridge, New Jersey 07656-0713 Re: Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. Registration Statement on Form S-1 Filed July 14, 2006 File No. 333-135782 Dear Mr. Rolfe, We have reviewed your filing and have the following comments. Where indicated, we think you should revise your document in re sponse to these comments. If you disagree, we will consider your explanation as to why our comment is inapplicable or a revision is unnecessary. Please be as deta iled as necessary in your expl anation. In some of our comments, we may ask you to provide us with supplemental information so we may better understand your disclosure. After reviewing th is information, we may or may not raise additional comments. The purpose of our review process is to assist you in your compliance with the applicable disclosure requirements and to enha nce the overall disclosure in your filing. We look forward to working with you in these respects and welcome any questions you may have about our comments or on any other aspect of our review. Feel free to call us at the telephone numbers listed at the end of th is letter. General 1. Prior to printing and distribution of the preliminary prospectus, please supplementally provide us mock-ups of any pages that include any additional pictures or graphics to be presented. Accompanying captions, if any, should also be provided. We may have comment s after reviewing the materials. Harold E. Rolfe, Esq. Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. August 11, 2006 Page 2 Registration Statement Cover Page 2. Please revise your fee table to separately list the shares offered by the selling shareholders. Prospectus Cover Page 3. Please remove the terms, “Joint Global Coordinators and Bookrunners” and “Joint Bookrunners” from the cover page of your prospectus. Summary, page 1 General 4. Please revise to balance the disclosure regarding your company. For example, if you choose to discuss your revenues and operating income, you should also provide information regarding your net income. Additionally, while we note that you have provided financial information regardi ng your fiscal year ended December 31, 2005, as the acquisition and refinancing transa ctions did not take place until shortly before your year-end, revise to provide comparable information regarding the results of your business since the acquisition to give an investors a better idea of how the company they will be investing in has performed so far. Our Segments, page 1 5. Please provide us with support for the first four “key facts” you reference on page 2, as well as for other statements throughout the document regarding your competitive position. For example, we note your statements that you maintain the second largest market share in the off-airpor t car rental market in the U.S. and that HERC has long been a leader in the equi pment rental business in the U.S. Our Markets, page 2 6. We note your reference in this section and throughout the document to industry information provided by Auto Rental News and the FAA, as well as to information based on “industry sources” “air travel trade association data” “a leading construction industry research resource” a nd other general references. Please revise your disclosure throughout the prospectus to indicate the date of each of the reports or resources you reference. A dditionally, please revise throughout the document to either identify the sources of the general references you make or revise to attribute the information to the company, based on its own research. For example, revise to specifically identify the “air travel trade association data” and “industry sources” you refer to. Finally, please be advised that you must provide Harold E. Rolfe, Esq. Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. August 11, 2006 Page 3 consents with respect to any statistics or other data provided that are not either attributed to the company or based on public information available for free or at a nominal cost. See Rule 436 of Regulation C. Revise throughout the document as appropriate. Principal and Selling Stockholders, page 7 7. Please expand this section to include a ta ble for investors clearly disclosing the aggregate amount of the investment the sponsors made in connection with the acquisition and refinancing transactions, th e aggregate amount of funds they have received so far (including dividends, consulting fees and any other amounts received from the company or its affiliate s), the estimated amount they will receive as selling shareholders and the value of their remaining ownership interest based on the offering price of the company’s stock. 8. Revise this section to disclose the pe rcentage of common stock the sponsors will continue to own following the public offeri ng and the rights they have regarding the nomination of directors. Summary Historical and Unaudited Pro Forma Financial Data, page 9 9. We note that the fiscal year 2005 statemen t of operations data included in your “Summary Historical and Unaudited Pro Forma Financial Data” table is based upon combined predecessor and su ccessor financial informati on. The presentation of combined predecessor and successor financial data is not considered appropriate due to the change in basis that result ed from Hertz Global Holdings, Inc.’s acquisition of Hertz Corporation from Ford. As such, please revise your disclosures to present the statement of operations data for the predecessor and successor financial periods, separately. 10. We note that you have disclosed EBITDA, which is considered to be a non-GAAP measure, in the “Summary Historical and Unaudited Pro Forma Financial Data” section of your registration statement. It appears that you believe EBITDA to be a supplemental measure of both your operating performance and your liquidity. Furthermore, you state that i) you believe EBITDA is frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of companies in your industries, ii) management uses EB ITDA to evaluate comparisons between you and your competitors and for internal monitoring and comparison purposes, and iii) you believe that i nvestors, analysts, and rating agencies consider EBITDA useful in measuring your ability to meet your debt service ob ligations and make capital expenditures. Paragraph (e)(1)(i)(C) of Item 10 of Regulation S-K requires you to provide a statement disclosing the reasons why you believe the presentation of your non- Harold E. Rolfe, Esq. Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. August 11, 2006 Page 4 GAAP measure provides useful information to investors regarding your financial condition and results of operations. Howe ver, we do not believe that you have provided substantive reasons for the pres entation of EBITDA as a performance measure or a measure of liquidity. Base d upon your disclosures, EBITDA does not appear to be directly asso ciated with any of your mate rial debt covenants. In addition, we note that in accordance w ith footnote 44 of the SEC’s release regarding “Conditions for Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures,” the fact that a non-GAAP measure is used by or useful to analysts (or similar parties) cannot be the sole support for presenting the non-GAAP financial measure. Furthermore, we are unclear as to how the presentation of EBITDA, which excludes depreciation and interest expense, is useful to yo ur investors, for the following reasons: • Revenue earning equipment is the larges t asset class on your balance sheet. • Depreciation is a material expense to your business. • You will continue to replace your revenue equipment prior to such equipment becoming fully depreciated, as a part of your normal business operations. • Your business is highly le veraged, resulting in significa nt interest expense. As such, please revise your disclosures to provide substantive reasons, specific to you, which demonstrate the usefulness of the presentation of EBITDA to investors. Alternatively, discontinue the use of th is non-GAAP measure. Please refer to question numbers 8, 10, and 15 of our releas e titled “Frequently Asked Questions Regarding the Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for further guidance with regard to the presentation of EBITDA in documents filed with the SEC. 11. We note that you have disclosed Pro Forma Corporate EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP measure, in the “Summary Historical and Unaudited Pro Forma Financial Data” section of your registration statemen t. It appears that you believe this measure is useful to your investors because several of your material debt covenants are based on Corporate EBITDA. You state further that non-compliance with your debt covenants could result in the requ irement to immediately repay all amounts outstanding under the related agreements, a nd thus, could have a material adverse effect on your results of operations, fi nancial position, and cash flows. While the presentation of an adjusted EBITDA measure is sometimes permitted when i) such measure relates directly to th e computation of a material covenant to a material credit agreement and ii) the inform ation about the covena nt is material to an investor’s understanding of the compa ny’s financial condition and/or liquidity, we believe that you should expand your discussion of Corporate EBITDA if you wish to continue to present the measure in your registration statement. In this regard, please expand your disclosure to state the specific covenants which are computed based upon Corporate EBITDA, the amount of debt that is subject to such covenants, the amount(s) or lim it(s) required for compliance with the covenants, and the financial covenant ratio s calculated for your company as of the Harold E. Rolfe, Esq. Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. August 11, 2006 Page 5 latest fiscal year and inte rim period. Furthermore, if you desire to continue to present Corporate EBITDA as a measure of liquidity, you should reconcile this measure to a measure of cash flow. Alternatively, please discontinue the presentation of this non-GAAP measure. Refer to question numbers 10 and 12 of our release titled “Frequ ently Asked Questions Regarding the Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for additional guidance. 12. In addition, we note that you have presented Corporate EBITDA on a pro forma basis. However, we are unclear how your computation of pro forma Corporate EBITDA would compare to Corporate EBITDA computed based upon your actual results of operations. As such, please provide us with a detailed computation of pro forma Corporate EBITDA, as well as, Corporate EBITDA computed based upon your actual results of operations. 13. We note that you have disclosed pro forma Corporate EBITDA on a segment basis. Furthermore, as you have reconciled this m easure to “Income (loss) before income taxes and minority interest” for each of your segments, it appears that you have presented pro forma Corporate EBITDA as a performance measure. We do not believe that the presentation of Corpor ate EBITDA as a measure of segment performance is useful to your investors. As such, if your debt covenants do not specifically require the com putation of Corporate EBITDA on a segment basis, we believe that you should disc ontinue the presentation of this non-GAAP measure. 14. We note that you have disclosed net cor porate debt, which appears to be a non- GAAP measure, in the “Summary Historical and Unaudited Pro Forma Financial Data” section of your registration statement. You state that this measure is an important statistic to management and to ratings agencies as it helps measure your leverage. However, we do not believe that your disclosure of how the measure is used by management and ratings agencies provides substantive evidence of its usefulness to investors. Furthermore, it is unclear how your investors would benefit from the presentation of a meas ure which eliminates over 50% of your outstanding debt balance. As such, pleas e disclose the reason s, specific to your company, which explain why your non-GAAP measure provides useful information to your investors regarding your company’s financial condition, or discontinue its presentation. Refer to the guidance of paragraph (e)(1)(i)(C) of Item 10 of Regulation S-K. 15. We note that your “Summary Historical and Unaudited Pro Forma Financial Data” table includes several statis tical measures (e.g. rental ra te revenue per transaction day, rental and rental related revenue, and same store revenue growth) which appear to be computed on a non-GAAP basis. While statistical measures that are computed using GAAP financial measures are permitted by paragraph (e)(4) of Regulation S-K, we note that several of your statistical measures are computed based upon revenue measures that eliminate the effects of fluctuations in foreign Harold E. Rolfe, Esq. Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. August 11, 2006 Page 6 currency. We believe that you should reca lculate your statistical measures based upon your revenues recognized in accordance with GAAP, or clearly explain in the filing why your presenta tion is appropriate. Risk Factors, page 18 If we acquire any business in the future, they could prove difficult to integrate…, page 24 16. Do you have any current plans, proposals or arrangements regarding acquisitions? If so, please revise throughout your document as appropriate to disclose such plans. If not, this risk appears to be one that could apply to any issuer and should be removed. We face risks related to changes in our ownership, page 25 17. Please confirm that your proposed offering w ould not trigger the change of control clauses in your agreements with third parties or government authorities. Additionally, please confirm that there are no other current plans regarding a change in the ownership of your company. Risks Relating to Our Substa ntial Indebtedness, page 28 18. Please disclose the amount of total assets and the percentage of assets pledged as collateral and discuss any material risks that you or Hertz may face as a result thereof. Because affiliates of certain underwriters are lenders, page 33 19. Revise both the subheading and text of th is risk factor to identify the “certain underwriters” to whom you refer. Our share price may decline due to the large numbe r of shares eligible for future sale, page 33 20. Please disclose the maximum number of sh ares subject to regi stration rights. Recent Transactions, page 38 21. Please expand this disclosure to list all of the refinancing transactions as discussed in Note 1 to the unaudited interim financial statements. 22. Please disclose the amount of Hertz’s cas h on hand used in connection with the acquisition. Harold E. Rolfe, Esq. Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. August 11, 2006 Page 7 Use of Proceeds, page 39 23. Revise the second paragraph of this secti on indicate that the special dividend was paid to your sponsors, as they own over 99% of the company. Capitalization, page 41 24. Please revise the pro forma data provided in your capitalization ta ble to give effect to your stock issuances which occurred subsequent to March 31, 2006. In addition, your pro forma capitalization data should reflect your borrowings of $84.9 million on May 15, 2006, to the extent that such borro wings were not directly offset by use of the proceeds for the payment of y our 6.5% notes that were due in 2006. Dilution, page 42 25. The dilution section of your registration statement should disclose your pro forma net tangible book value (on a total and per share basis) after giving effect to transactions that occurred subsequent to March 31, 2006, but prior to your offering. For example, you should disclose your pro forma net tangible book value after giving effect to i) the shares of your common stock issued i