Ford Motor Co. has completed its $710 million tender offer for the rest of Hertz Corp., the automaker said on March 5. Ford owned about 81.5 percent of the outstanding shares of the Park Ridge, NJ-based Hertz when its tender offer was announced in September. Preliminary figures showed Ford was offered nearly 19.4 million of approximately 20 million Hertz shares by Friday’s expiration date. Ford paid $35.50 per share, which was a premium of 46 percent over the price of Hertz shares at the time it launched the offer in January. Ford and Hertz will complete the transaction by merging the automaker’s Ford FSG subsidiary with the rental-car company. Hertz will then become an indirect and wholly owned subsidiary of Ford. The automaker had spun off Hertz shares in 1997, when investors’ interest in rental-car companies was growing. The stock peaked at just over $60 a share in May 1999. Ford is the only automaker of the Big Three that still has an interest in rental-car firm; General Motors Corp. and DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group sold their stakes a few years ago.