Wright Express Corp., the nation´s leading provider of charge cards for company fleets, is being sold, the company announced last week. Wright Express will go public and is expected to raise $1 billion for parent company Cendant Corp. Cendant also said it expects the previously announced spin off of its mortgage and fleet-management operations, PHH, will occur by February. The sales reflect the company´s strategy of focusing on the travel and residential real estate sectors, according to news reports. Cendant is the parent company of Avis, Budget Rent A Car, Days Inn and other travel and real estate businesses. Wright Express handles transactions for more than 270,000 commercial and government fleets with more than 3.8 million vehicles. It collects information at nine out of 10 of the nation´s retail fuel locations and 40,000 vehicle-maintenance locations, as drivers use Wright-related credit cards. Among the data it gathers is the amount of each sale, the identification of the driver and vehicle, and the odometer reading. During the five-year period that ended last December, the number of fleet transactions grew by 16 percent, to 189.1 million. Wright Express earns revenue based on the number and value of the transactions it processes. In 2003, it had revenue of $156.9 million and net income of $34.6 million. PHH, which manages a million vehicles for its clients, had combined revenue of more than $2 billion for the 12 months ended June 30, Cendant said in October
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