Volkswagen has attracted six bidders for its Europcar vehicle rental business, including one from rival Sixt.

The sell-off is partly to raise funds to pay for extensive restructuring. Sixt had previously denied interest in Europcar, which analysts estimated would attract bids of up to £1.7bn, including debt.

The other bidders are Enterprise and four private equity groups – Cerebus, Cinven, Carlyle and Merrill Lynch.