Standard & Poor's has said it may downgrade Hertz following the decision of the US car hire group to borrow $1bn (€795m) to pay to stockholders as a dividend. The move comes six months after being acquired by a private equity consortium.

Clayton Dubilier & Rice, The Carlyle Group and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity bought the car rental company from the Ford Motor Company for $15bn in September of last year, the largest leveraged buyout since the $25bn purchase of tobacco and food group RJR Nabisco by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in 1989.