The Life of a Hedge Fund Analyst is Brutal

I remember September 2013

HTZ was a hot long (admittedly in hindsight crowded with a lot of event optionality priced in for the spin of herc on the back of improving pricing and fleet rationalization in the core business due to industry consolidation)

I remember meeting Sep 7 w Hertz CEO in a small group at the Citi conf in Boston - no updates. A week later, the CFO “retired” bcs she didn’t want to move to the new Miami HQ due to her kids schooling in NJ (plausible but duh red 🚩) A few days later, the 8-K hit: “HTZ revises full year 2013 EPS down materially due to much higher than expected depreciation”

Stock gapped -18pct in the aftermarket. Panic ensued as everyone began to acknowledge the inscrutability of HTZ’s numbers — a cobwebed maze of addbacks reflecting the history of PE ownership

The next day, at a large group meeting at the Hyatt in midtown, about 150 angry investors showed up. Pitchforks were out — Frissora played it cool. As one investor tore into him, Frissora got red in the face and filled with Anger and nearly flipped the table like a Princeton wrestler It was at this moment I knew I’d been duped... the Hertz Hurts 😞

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-01/hertz-seeks-70-million-in-clawbacks-tied-to-accounting-scandal