Rabobank sells car rental Athlon for €1.1 billion

Rabobank is selling Athlon Car Lease to Daimler Financial Services for 1.1 billion euros. Athlon formed part of Rabobank subsidiary DLL since 2006, ANP reports. DLL plans to focus on leasing and financing services for machines, especially in the food and agricultural industries. These activities work well with those of parent company Rabobank. The car leasing activities less so. So DLL and Rabobank decided to sell Athlon to Daimler. Athlon is active in 11 Eurpoean companies and manages a flee of over 250 thousand vehicles. Daimler is active in over 40 countries with a fleet of more than 3.7 million vehicles. According to Rabobank, Athlon has a brighter future under the wing of a larger and more specialized party. "This is the right step for Athlon and the right step for DLL", DLL CEO Bill Stephenson said. Rabobank expect the acquisition to go through late this year, if the regulators approve.