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Bloomberg
Hitachi Ltd. is seeking to buy Polish leasing and vehicle-fleet operator Prime Car Management SA, potentially setting up a bidding war between the country’s largest lender and the Japanese manufacturing conglomerate.
A local leasing and fleet-management unit of Hitachi offered to acquire all shares of Gdansk-based Prime Car at 12.09 zloty each, according to a filing. That would value the company at $38.3 million, and compares with a bid of 11.38 zloty a share from the leasing arm of PKO Bank Polski SA.
Hitachi has been retooling in recent years to expand in
digital services, including a $2.8 billion investment programme in the so-called Internet of Things that involves acquisitions as well as developing its own technology. Prime Car’s Masterlease brand rolled out a wholly web-based vehicle-subscription service in 2017 that it says enables customers to obtain a car in less than 15 minutes.
Prime Car shares plunged 86 percent from their market debut in 2014 through August, when they hit a record low
of 6 zloty.