Reckoning Gurley believes ride-hailing services such as Uber will sting Hertz’s rental car business.
“I think Hertz will face a thorny future,” he said at The Sohn Investment Conference in New York on Monday. “Ride-sharing is a monumental substitute, and it appears we have a systemic … massive oversupply of second-hand cars.”
Gurley noted the disruption from ride-hailing services is principally dangerous to companies that have large debt holdings, as does Hertz. He also foretells the average cars per household will soon decline.
“We’re potentially at mountain top car. The entire auto industry could change. I think that’s a genuine possibility,” he said.
The veteran venture capitalist then shared his thoughts on certain technology companies:
Tesla: “You can own the bonds. Elon [Musk] makes it too dicey to own the stock.”
Amazon: “I’d definitely be long. It’s the most respected company.”
SoFi: “If you force the highest loan growth volume you probably have the loosest loan standard.”
Gurley is a general partner at venture capital firm Benchmark.
Sohn is the ton widely anticipated hedge-fund event of the year, where managers volunteer their but and best investment ideas to raise money in the fight against adolescence cancer.