Parent of Alamo, National car rentals seeks bankruptcy protection

Tuesday, November 13th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

MIAMI (AP) _ ANC Rental Corp., the parent company of the Alamo and National car rental companies, filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday, the latest victim of the retreat in travel since the terrorist attacks.

``The drastic decline in travel after Sept. 11 has taken a tremendous toll on our business, and our current capital and expense structure cannot absorb the shortfall,'' said ANC chairman and CEO Michael Egan. He promised to ``continue serving customers while we stabilize the business.''

Customers of the two companies will not notice any difference in service, and all reservations will be honored, the company said.

ANC already has cut its work force at headquarters and in the field, restructured its senior management and merged the sales force of the two brands in recent weeks.

Nasdaq halted trading in ANC at a price of 60 cents a share.

Egan warned shortly after the attacks that ANC might not survive without government help, but only the airline industry has gotten federal funds. About 90 percent of Alamo and National business relied on airport travelers, who were scaling back travel even before the attacks.

ANC also was losing money before the attacks. It was projecting a loss for the year and had a net loss of $23.6 million on falling revenue in the quarter before its traditional summer boom.

The Fort Lauderdale-based company intends to reorganize its business operations and finances under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

International operations and independent national franchise holders are not affected by the bankruptcy filing in Wilmington, Del.

The company had $3.5 billion in revenue last year. It has 19,000 employees and more than 3,000 locations worldwide.