M&A
The Presidio Group’s latest report finds the average dealer’s pretax profit and adjusted net income improved in Q3 while the M&A market kept pace with the year-ago quarter. +
Lithia Motors has acquired Anaheim Hyundai, Huntington Beach Hyundai and Garden Grove Hyundai, all located in Southern California’s Orange County, from Nouri/Shaver Automotive Group. +
Protective has agreed to purchase Portfolio, combining two of the nation’s leading F&I and reinsurance providers and adding to a string of major acquisitions that includes AUL, Revolos and U.S. Warranty. +
NADA analysts say waning demand and affordability issues are depressing sales team earnings, Nevada leads the nation in average payroll and bigger dealers continue to gain market share. +
Lithia has expanded its footprint in the Southeast with a series of dealership purchases over the past several weeks, adding a total of four franchised stores in Florida and Georgia. +
TrueCar co-founder Scott Painter will return to the CEO position he left in 2015 after leading an effort to acquire the company in a $227 million deal with Fair Holdings Inc. +
Fifth Third Bancorp will acquire Comerica Inc. in an all-stock transaction valued at $10.9 billion, creating the nation’s ninth-largest bank with approximately $288 billion in assets. +
Carvana has added Park Cities Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram to its growing franchised dealership footprint, bringing increased access to trade-in units as well as new risks for investors. +
The nation’s No. 1 auto retailer has acquired Fletcher Jones Automotive’s Chicago Audi and Mercedes-Benz stores, shrinking the upmarket group’s footprint to 13 West Coast stores. +
APCO Holdings has acquired Lawley Automotive Dealer Solutions, an agency that was founded in 1984 and serves 200-plus clients from its Western New York headquarters. +
Ken Ganley Automotive has acquired Lexus of Cleveland and Lexus of Akron-Canton from Ascent Automotive, adding its first Lexus franchises within miles of its Northeast Ohio headquarters. +
Urban Science’s mid-year dealership and franchise count finds Texas leading a small group of states adding rooftops in a largely flat market marked by lower per-store sales. +
Kerrigan Advisors’ Blue Sky Report for the second quarter shows merger and acquisition activity in the dealership sector improved on a year-over-year basis in the first half of 2025. +
Presidio Group analysts say U.S. dealership buy-sell activity was roughly on par with last year for the first two quarters of 2025, but blockbuster deals could portend a busier second half. +
Group 1 Automotive has acquired a Mercedes-Benz dealership located in an uptown Atlanta neighborhood known for its high-rise office and condo towers and wealthy residents. +
AutoCanada announced the sale of 13 of its 17 U.S. franchised dealerships to multiple unnamed purchasers in a series of deals worth more than $60 million. +
The third-generation owners of Bosak Auto Group have divested their auto retail holdings through separate deals with Victory Automotive and the Garff Family of Dealerships. +
Coughlin Automotive has acquired Bob Chapman Ford of Marysville, Ohio, from fourth-generation owner Joe Chapman, adding the state’s first Ford dealership to its growing network. +
Ancira Automotive Group has acquired Patriot Buick GMC, a dealership known for serving the Killeen, Texas, community and families stationed at nearby Fort Hood for 34 years. +
Sonic Automotive has become the nation’s largest-volume Jaguar Land Rover retailer with the acquisition of four California dealerships from US Auto Trust. +
The Presidio Group’s latest survey names Toyota the most desirable franchise and finds U.S. dealers remain upbeat about profitability and values despite growing concerns over tariffs. +
Asbury Automotive has sold its Larry H. Miller Ford, Chevrolet and CJDR stores in Provo, Utah, to Salt Lake Valley Auto Group, adding to its divestiture of the group it acquired in 2021. +
Houston’s Vaughan Automotive has acquired the former Larry H. Miller Toyota of Lemon Grove, expanding into the Golden State as Asbury Automotive parts with its last California store. +
Lithia Motors has acquired Mercedes-Benz of Jackson (Miss.) and Mercedes-Benz of Collier (Tenn.) from the Higginbotham family in a deal brokered by the Presidio Group. +
Florida’s Atlantic Coast Automotive Group has acquired all three of Lithia Motors’ West Virginia stores, entering a sixth state in a move described as a “key strategic divestiture” by the broker. +
Kerrigan Advisors’ latest Blue Sky Report finds single point dealerships represented 79% of buy/sells in the first quarter, up from 68% in 2023, but total transactions fell by 14%. +
Hendrick Automotive Group will return to Columbia, S.C., with the purchase of Love Chevrolet and Love GMC from Love Automotive, which exits the market after 60 years. +
Jerry Seiner Auto Group has acquired Ocean Honda of San Juan Capistrano from Victory Automotive Group. The renamed Jerry Seiner Honda is the Utah group’s first California store. +
AutoNation has acquired Groove Ford and Groove Mazda of suburban Denver from Summit Automotive Partners, completing the selloff of Summit’s Colorado Groove stores that started last year. +
Auto Dealership Partners has won an $18 million judgment against Ford Motor Co. after accusing the factory of engaging in “deceit and fraud” by blocking the purchase of a Benton, Ark., franchise. +
Shortly following a multimillion-dollar penalty leveled by the FTC, AutoCanada Inc. is actively seeking a buyer for its 10 Illinois dealerships and hopes to close the deal by the end of 2025. +
U.S. auto dealers sold 697 franchises in an all-time record of 438 transactions last year, according to Kerrigan Advisors’ year-end Blue Sky Report, a 10% increase from 2023. +
Carvana has acquired Jerry Seiner Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram of Casa Grande, Ariz., marking the online retailer and dealer disruptor’s first foray into the new vehicle business. +
Herb Chambers has sold his network of Massachusetts and Rhode Island dealerships and collision centers to Asbury Automotive Group in a blockbuster, $1.34 billion deal that puts Asbury in the New England market for the first time. +
Veteran M&A advisor Andy Gill tells CBT News readers that, depending on their brand and location, some dealers who have not considered selling may draw offers too generous to refuse. +
Waning dealership profitability could have a cooling effect on a dealer M&A market that was red-hot in 2024. Alysha Webb talks with experts and offers her latest forecast for Auto Remarketing. +
Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi have entered discussions that could lead to a three-way merger that would form the world’s third-largest automaker. A new U.S. president could complicate the deal. +
Cooper Chevrolet Buick acquired GMC and Hyundai rooftops from neighboring Superior Automotive Group, creating a five-franchise collection now known as Cooper Auto Family. +
Sonic Automotive and Kerrigan Advisors announced the acquisition of Audi New Orleans from Bohn Brothers Automotive Group. The Metairie, La., store has served the Crescent City area since 2009. +
Kerrigan Advisors tracked 330 dealership transactions involving 544 franchises in the first nine months of 2024, putting M&A on track for a fifth consecutive year of growth. +
Don Franklin Automotive Group broadened its dealership portfolio with the acquisition of Knox Ford from owner Gary Haupt, who will focus his attention on his larger Ford dealership in Louisville. +
Sam Leman Automotive Group purchased Champaign (Ill.) Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram, Yahoo Finance reported. +
Fred Beans Automotive expanded with the purchase of three rooftops from Freysinger Automotive and a new “state-of-the-art” collision center. +
Braden Automotive Group expanded its luxury lineup with the acquisition of a Central Ohio Cadillac GMC dealership. +
AutoNation divested eight dealerships as part of a broader portfolio strategy shortly after a third quarter that the nation’s No. 1 auto retailer said led to a 24% drop in net income. +
Sheldon Sandler of Bel Air Partners was recently featured on Inside Automotive, offering tips to CBT News viewers preparing to sell a dealership. +
Kerrigan Advisors facilitated the sale of the family-owned Cowboy Toyota to the family-owned CAR Group. +
Beyer Automotive Group transitions ownership of eight dealerships in a significant market shift. +
Jump IQ, an AI-powered dealership valuation tool, earned top honors as the Dealership Solution of the Year in the AutoTech Breakthrough Awards. +
Ineos Automotive grew its U.S. presence with four new partnerships with large, privately owned dealership groups. +
After experiencing record highs for more than two years, a cooling market will likely accelerate consolidation, according to a special Automotive News report. +
The latest Haig Report reveals a decline in buy-sell activity as blue sky values remain above pre-pandemic levels. +
Lithia & Driveway announced the acquisition of Acura, Honda and Subaru franchises from Duval Motor Company. +
Victory Automotive Group, advised by Haig Partners, acquired Weiss Toyota in its latest strategic expansion. +
Ed Morse Automotive Group expanded its portfolio and entered a new state with the acquisition of eight of Lawley’s Arizona dealerships. +
The buy-sell market for auto dealerships set records in the first half of 2024 with transaction activity on pace to double pre-pandemic levels for the year. +
Jim Keras Automotive Group has been reunited with its former Buick franchise after purchasing Sunrise Buick GMC Covington Pike from Sunrise Auto. +
Stivers Automotive Group, with the assistance of the Dave Cantin Group, expanded its presence in Georgia with the acquisition of a Ford dealership from AutoNation. +
A lawsuit claims the transfer of dual Long Island, N.Y., Alfa Romeo and Maserati dealerships was unfairly blocked by their factories. +
Shelor purchased two dealerships from Gary Duncan, who has now sold five of his 11 dealerships to auto groups since 2022. +
