"This award is a tribute to Avis for excelling in outreach to the Asian American community," said Gelly Borromeo, publisher of Asian Enterprise at a gala awards luncheon in Los Angeles. "The award covers various facets of Avis' operations: employment, management, supplier diversity and other company diversity programs. It is a testament to the spirit of equity in which Avis does business."

To determine award winners, Asian Enterprise magazine used information developed by Fortune in its Best Companies for Minorities research. In its most recent Best Companies for Minorities ranking, Fortune named Avis one of the Best Companies for African Americans and one of the Best Companies for Native Americans. Separately, Fortune also ranked Avis as the number one company in the "Automotive Retailing, Services" category of its February, 2001 list of "Most Admired" companies in America.

"Avis is honored and gratified to receive this award," said F. Robert Salerno, Avis' president and chief operating officer. "This recognition reflects our ongoing efforts to keep diversity at the center of the Avis agenda. We are proud of our relationship with the Asian American community and are always looking for ways to improve that relationship through hiring, procurement and marketing activities."

The award is part of Asian Enterprise's Celebrating Asian Entrepreneurs program, the only competition-based awards program in the nation that seeks to recognize outstanding Asian American small businesses. This was the seventh year for the Celebrating Asian Entrepreneurs program and the second year for the Best Companies for Asian Americans awards. The other winners were: Applied Materials, Bank of America, Fannie Mae, JP Morgan Chase, McDonald's, Nordstrom, Pitney Bowes, SoCal Edison, Sun Microsystems, Union Bank, U. S. Postal Service and Washington Mutual.

Avis Rent A Car System, Inc. and its subsidiaries operate the world's second largest general-use car rental business, providing business and leisure customers with a wide range of services at more than 1,650 locations in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Latin/American Caribbean region. Avis is recognized as the industry leader in applying new technologies to grow its business and is one of the world's top brands for customer loyalty. In April 2001, Avis tied for first place in customer satisfaction for business travelers in the J. D. Power and Associates survey of car rental companies.

The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cendant Corporation (NYSE: CD), a diversified global provider of business and consumer services primarily within the real estate and travel sectors.