Hertz awards over $16 million in retention bonus to key executives

(Reuters) – U.S. car rental company Hertz Global Holdings (HTZ.N) said on Tuesday it has paid about $16.2 million in retention bonuses to a range of key executives at the director level and above, days after the company filed for bankruptcy protection.

The company paid President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Stone $700,000, and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Jamere Jackson $600,000 as retention bonuses, Hertz said in a filing to the U.S. regulators.

Last week, the board of the company, which counts billionaire investor Carl Icahn as its largest shareholder with a nearly 39{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} stake, allowed it to seek chapter 11 protection in a U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware.

The firm is reeling under travel bans and lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of the new coronaries. Since the virus outbreak, a large portion of Hertz’s revenue, which comes from car rentals at airports, have evaporated.

With nearly $19 billion of debt and roughly 38,000 employees worldwide as of the end of 2019, Hertz is among the largest companies to be undone by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Employees who received the retention bonus would forfeit the right to participate in the company’s 2020 annual bonus plan.