Avis Budget has upped the stakes in the multi-million dollar bidding battle with Hertz to take over Dollar Thifty.
The cash portion of the Avis offer for Dollar Thifty has been raised from $39.25 to $40.75 per share in an effort to knock out a rival bid by Hertz.
Avis claimed its revised bid represents a premium of more than 22% over the Hertz offer.
Hertz originally bid $1.1 billion for Dollar Thifty in April, prompting a counter offer by Avis Budget of $1.3 billion in the summer.
Raising the cash portion of its offer, Avis Budget described its bid as being “clearly superior” to the Hertz proposal.
Dollar Thrifty shareholders are due to attend a special meeting on September 16 to consider the Hertz offer.
“In the event that the Hertz transaction is rejected by the special meeting, we will commit to sign the merger agreement we previously delivered to Dollar Thrifty at any time within five days of that meeting,” Avis Budget said.