Sixt
 |
|
| Sixt rent a car | |
| Societas Europaea | |
| Traded as | : SIX2 |
| ISIN | DE0007231326 |
| Industry | Car rental |
| Founded | 1912 |
| Founder | Martin Sixt |
| Headquarters | Pullach, Munich, Germany |
|
Key people
|
Erich Sixt (CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board), Gunter Thielen (Chairman of the Supervisory Board) |
| Services | Car leasing |
|
Number of employees
|
4,308 (2014) |
| Subsidiaries | myDriver, DriveNow |
| Website | [1] |
Sixt SE is a European multinational car rental company with about 4,000 locations in over 105 countries. Sixt SE acts as a parent and holding company of the Sixt Group, which is internationally active in the business areas of vehicle rental and leasing. The majority of the company (60%) is owned by the Sixt family, who manage the company. The remaining share is tradeable stock: SIX2 (XETRA). It is the largest car rental company in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Israel.
In 1912, Martin Sixt founded the company with a fleet of three cars, creating the first car rental company in Germany. During the First World War, the fleet was confiscated and used by the German Army. After the war, business resumed, but the fleet was once again seized by the German Army at the outbreak of World War II. When the war concluded, the company rebounded, establishing a taxi fleet for members of the United States Army stationed in Germany. It then opened a taxi business in Munich with the first radio taxis.
In 1951, the car rental company Auto Sixt was founded. In the sixties and seventies, the company expanded by opening branches at all major airports in Germany. In 1982, Auto Sixt was renamed Sixt Autovermietung GmbH, with the name Sixt/Budget in the logo. The company was transformed again in 1986, this time becoming Sixt AG, a corporation traded on the German stock exchange. In 1988, the subsidiary Sixt Leasing GmbH was established, and in 1993, the operating business of the AG was handed over to another subsidiary, Sixt GmbH & Co Autovermietung KG. Sixt AG acted thereafter as a holding company of the Group.
In the 1990s, Sixt became Germany's largest car rental company. At the same time, the Group expanded its business abroad to countries including Switzerland, France and Great Britain. Tunisia, Morocco and New Zealand followed in 1998. In 2001, Sixt expanded to the Middle East as well as other countries of Africa. Sixt began operating in the United States in 2011.
In 1993, Sixt bought the assets of its competitor Autoverleih Buchbinder, operating the brand briefly before finally discontinuing it. Sixt had failed to secure the naming rights, and subsequently Buchbinder was re-established and continued operating in the market. In 1999, the Bundesgerichtshof Federal Court (BGH) issue a landmark judgment against Sixt for illegal price fixing, requiring it to pay damages to its franchisees. Sixt had controlled de facto the pricing for the independent franchisees prices, as they were part of the Germany-wide reservation system. In the event of pricing discrepancies, the rental agreements were returned to Germany. This was deemed inadmissible under German antitrust law (price fixing of the second hand) and forbidden by the BGH.
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Wikipedia