LONDON, UK: Marshall Motor Holdings, one of the UK’s leading automotive retail groups, announces the strategic acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Motorline Holdings Limited for a cash consideration of £64.5 million.

Funded from the Group’s existing cash resources, the net assets on acquisition include c.£20m of cash and c.£10m of debt.

Marshall Motor Holdings has also separately acquired a related freehold property for £2.9m and has the option to acquire two additional strategic freehold properties for £24.9m.

Motorline is a leading multi-franchise dealer group headquartered in Canterbury and operating across Kent, West Sussex, Surrey, Berkshire, Bristol, South Wales and the West Midlands.

It represents ten brands through 48 operating franchises including Toyota, Lexus, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Audi, ŠKODA, Nissan, Peugeot, and Maserati. In addition, it operates four Volkswagen Group Trade Parts Specialist (TPS) businesses and five used car centres.

Motorline’s consolidated revenues for the year ending 31 December 2020 were £695.2m with profit before tax of £6.1m (which included a one-off profit on the disposal of freehold property and other one-off items of in aggregate c£4.0m).

Motorline’s consolidated shareholder funds at completion are c.£30m, including c.£20m of cash and c.£10m of debt.

Strategic Rationale Overview

• The Acquisition is in line with the Group’s strategy which includes growing scale with its chosen brand partners; annual revenues expected to exceed £3bn.
• Scaled entry to the Toyota and Lexus brands – Motorline is the second largest retail partner for Toyota and Lexus in the UK with 19 franchises; Toyota/Lexus is the largest vehicle manufacturer globally with a passenger car market share of approximately 7.2% in the UK.
• Scaled entry to the Hyundai brand – Motorline is the joint second largest Hyundai retail partner in the UK with seven franchises. Hyundai is the third largest vehicle manufacturer globally with a UK market share of approximately 4.0%.
• Further strengthens the Group’s position in terms of scale and depth of relationship with Volkswagen Group through new locations with the Volkswagen, Audi and ŠKODA brands in attractive territories, together with additional Volkswagen Group TPS locations.
• Addition of seven further Nissan franchises, making the Group the fourth largest Nissan retail partner in the UK with ten franchises.
• Addition of four further Peugeot franchises, making the Group the joint second largest Peugeot retail partner in the UK with seven franchises.
• Addition of new brands increases the Group’s brand coverage to 85.4%, enabling synergies for used vehicle remarketing and fleet sales.
• Extends the Group’s geographic footprint into a further eight counties with the Group now having representation in 37 counties in England and Wales, further strengthening the Group’s used car proposition.
• Acquisition fully supported by all brand partners, both new and existing.

Daksh Gupta, Group Chief Executive, commented: “We are delighted to announce the acquisition of Motorline in line with our strategy which includes growing both further scale with existing brand partners and developing scaled relationships with selected new brand partners.

Motorline is an extremely well-respected, long-standing business. The Obee family have overseen a significant expansion of the business in recent years and have invested in a market-leading property portfolio.

The acquisition has been funded from existing cash resources and is expected to generate attractive financial returns for our Group.

We are delighted to begin new and significant partnerships with Toyota/Lexus and Hyundai. These brands, with a combined market share in the UK of over 11%, have been a target for the Group for some time and the acquisition of Motorline provides immediate scale with each of them. I would like to thank each of them for supporting this acquisition and very much look forward to working with them over the coming years to develop a mutually successful partnership.

I would also like to take the opportunity to thank our existing brand partners for their continued support for the further growth and development of the Group for which we are extremely grateful.

Finally, and most importantly, I would like to welcome our 1,500 new Motorline colleagues to the Group. I look forward to meeting you soon and to working with you over the coming years.”

Founded in 1972, Motorline is a leading family-owned, multi-franchise dealer group headquartered in Canterbury and operating across Kent, West Sussex, Surrey, Berkshire, Bristol, South Wales and the West Midlands.

Marshall Motor ‘s principal activities are the sale and repair of new and used vehicles. Following the Acquisition, the Group’s businesses have a total of 164 franchises covering 27 brands, across 37 counties in England and Wales. In addition, the Group operates 10 trade parts specialists, seven used car centres, six standalone body shops and one pre delivery inspection centre.

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