Marshall Motor buys rival Motorline for £64.5m
Marshall Motor has bought rival Motorline for £64.5m, signalling new partnerships with car brands.
The automotive retail group said it had also separately acquired a related freehold property for £2.9m and has the option to acquire two additional strategic freehold properties for £24.9m.
The net assets on acquisition of Motortline – which represents ten brands including Toyota, Lexus and Maserati – include c.£20m of cash and c.£10m of debt.
Motorline also operates four Volkswagen Group Trade Parts Specialist (TPS) businesses and five used car centres.
Motorline’s consolidated revenues hit £695.2m for the year ending December 31 2020, with profit before tax of £6.1m.
The group’s consolidated shareholder funds at completion are c.£30m, including c.£20m of cash and c.£10m of debt.
Daksh Gupta, Marshall chief executive, said the acquisition was in line with a strategy “which includes growing both further scale with existing brand partners and developing scaled relationships with selected new brand partners.”
He added: “Motorline is an extremely well-respected, long-standing business.”
The acquisition represents new partnerships with Toyota/Lexus and Hyundai.
“These brands, with a combined market share in the UK of over 11 per cent, have been a target for the group for some time and the acquisition of Motorline provides immediate scale with each of them,” Gupta added.
What’s more, Motorline operates in some new territories for the group, including in Kent, West Sussex, Bristol, South Wales and the West Midlands.
The deal eans Marshall now operates in 37 counties in England and Wales.