Lookers surges on acquisition of Benfield Motor Group for £87.5m
Motor retail and aftersales service company Lookers surged after announcing the acquisition of Addison Motors Limited, trading as Benfield Motor Group, for £87.5m in cash.
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16:39 06/10/23
The acquisition, which is expected to be immediately earnings-enhancing, is being funded using new banking facilities made available to Lookers by Bank of Ireland, Barclays Bank, HSBC Bank, Lloyds Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Yorkshire Bank.
Benfield is a private motor retailing company offering sales, service, parts and bodyshop facilities for new and used cars and commercial vehicles across the north of England and Scotland. The statutory accounts for Addison for the year ended 31 December 2014 reported revenue of £699.7m and pre-tax profit of £7m. The company had gross assets of £154.6m and net assets of £55m.
Chief executive, Andy Bruce, said: "We are delighted to have acquired this respected and long established family business. A key attraction for us is the cultural fit. Both Lookers and Benfield share an approach which puts employees and customers at the heart of our business and this acquisition will ensure that continues.
We are committed to preserving and nurturing this culture as well as putting in place new initiatives which allows Benfield to benefit from our larger scale and leverage the investments we have made. The acquisition also strengthens our relationship with a number of our key manufacturer partners and gives us a truly national footprint by adding to our presence in the North East of the UK.”
Investec, which rates the stock at ‘buy’, said this was “a major acquisition” and will materially enhance the company’s position in the automotive retailing markets.
At 1057 BST, Lookers shares were up 5.6% at 174.60p.