The buy-out firm, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, has apparently fallen short on its yearly targets. The company that is the owner of car hire giant Hertz closed the year with an accumulative $5 billion, but was short of the $7.5 billion target they had set themselves. CD&R finished the year off spending however, with the purchase of British Car Auctions from another US based equity firm, Montagu Private Equity. The deal was said to be for around £400 million and is a great acquisition for the company.

Hertz have already been using BCA for some time now to dispose of their older vehicles. This gives the car rental firm the chance to keep up with the latest cars on offer from manufacturers and ensures their customers never get a car that is old. It is a practice that many car hire companies use in selling on their older fleet, as it takes the burden from them having to advertise and sell themselves. BCA has been going for more than 60 years and is one of the largest retailers of used cars in the world. They have branches in 12 countries across Europe and make an annual turnover of thought to be around £4 billion per year.

The spending has been limited to BCA though as the company has also invested almost $750 million in a hygiene solutions provider, JohnsonDiversey, and NCI Building Systems, a metal product manufacturer for non-residential structures. This year looks like it will be a bumper year for CD&R as the world starts the recovery from the recession.