Europcar Mobility Group has agreed to acquire Fox Rent A Car, one of the largest independent players in the US market.

The deal will be the “last” of a group of acquisitions begun three years ago, Europcar said.

It is hoped it will mark a milestone in the roll out of Shift 2023, the company’s strategic roadmap to reach €4 billion in revenues and a 15 million active customer base over the next four years.

Fox Rent A Car has a presence at 15 of the 25 key US airports.

For Caroline Parot, chief executive of Europcar Mobility Group, said: “The acquisition of Fox Rent A Car, one of the largest independent players in the US car rental market, is the last key step in our transformational mergers and acquisitions program, which enabled us to become a truly global mobility service company.

“Fox Rent A Car’s integration will be the platform for our future developments in the USA, giving us access to the largest car rental and mobility services market in the world.”

Fox Rent A Car operates a network of 21 corporate stations, with 100 or more affiliates, and is considered a value offering.

The company has a fleet of approximately 18,000 vehicles.

In 2018, Fox Rent A Car generated around $280 million in revenue.

Europcar Mobility Group expects the transaction to be neutral to its earnings per share in 2020 and to become fully accretive from 2021 onwards.

Mike Jaberi and Allen Rezapour, co-managing directors of Fox Rent A Car, said: “The Fox Rent A Car management team is very happy to join the Europcar Mobility Group family and excited by the growth opportunities it is going to create.

“We look forward to beginning to work closely with our new European colleagues over the coming months, with the objective of progressively implementing fruitful inbound and outbound business synergies with Europcar Mobility Group’s powerful brands.

“We are confident that we have very promising perspectives ahead of us.”

The terms of the deal were not disclosed.