Hertz Board, Backers Ordered to Face $2.8 Billion Buyback Case

Hertz Global Holdings Inc.'s board and private equity backers lost their bid Thursday to end litigation over $2.8 billion in stock buybacks that allegedly positioned the investment firms to grab a majority stake.

It’s “reasonably conceivable” the company’s directors—more than half of them tied to Certares Management LLC and Knighthead Capital Management LLC—orchestrated the stock repurchase program as part of a scheme to hand over corporate control without an investor vote or a premium payment, a judge ruled.

The dispute is one of a handful in Delaware’s Chancery Court targeting the architects of buybacks that allegedly let insiders grow their ...