2:21 pm, April 30, 2024
Inchape’s buyer Group 1 Automotive has announced global profits of almost £600m as its takeover of the British dealer group edges closer.
Car Dealer reported earlier this month that the US outfit had agreed a £346m deal to buy all of Inchcape’s UK retail operations.
The takeover is now awaiting regulatory approval from the Financial Conduct Authority but Group 1 have not let negotiations impact performance.
In a set of accounts recently published, the firm posted a global gross profit of $742.6m (£596m) for the first three months of 2024 – a 2% rise on the same period last year.
Revenues worldwide also rose by an impressive 8.2% to an eye watering $4.5bn (£3.6bn).
Its UK operations, which include BMW, Mercedes, Audi, VW, Seat, Skoda, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Toyota and Ford new car sites as well as a handful of used car centres in the UK, contributed $821.8m (£657m) of revenue compared to $784.7m (£626.2m) in Q1 2023.
Gross profit generated from its UK operations in the three month period was $102.1m (£81.5m) – a slight dip on last year’s $109.1 (£87.1m)
On average, in the UK, Group 1 made gross profit of $2,760 (£2,203) on every new car it sold – down 5% on last year.
Used car profit also fell 1.5% – down from $1,700 (£1,357) per car in the first quarter in 2023 to $1,550 (£1,237) this year.
The accounts also showed that Group 1 sold 8,961 new cars in the UK in Q1, compared to 14,038 used vehicles.
The UK accounted for 20.2% of all new vehicle sales across the group – with the remaining 79.8% of sales coming in the US.
Daryl Kenningham, Group 1’s president and CEO, said: ‘Our U.K. team rebounded nicely from the challenging fourth quarter of 2023, producing record quarterly revenues from parts and service and new vehicles, as well as increasing used vehicle sales volumes over 19% sequentially.
‘We saw some of the benefits of our UK cost reduction efforts in the first quarter of 2024; however, we expect to realise the full benefit of our cost reduction efforts in the second quarter and beyond.
‘We believe the UK. business is well positioned and look forward to the expansion of our UK. operations with the pending acquisition of Inchcape’s U.K. retail automotive business planned for Q3 2024.’
You can read why car dealerships this side of the Atlantic are proving so attractive to American investors here.
