11:15 am, June 2, 2021
Inchcape has confirmed the sale of two of its dealerships, bringing to a close a recent round of disposals.
The dealer group has sold its Jaguar Land Rover showroom in Clifton Moor, York, and its BMW dealership in Cobham, Surrey.
Jaguar Land Rover York will transfer to Lloyd Motor Group, with the deal including a payment of ‘goodwill relevant to the highly attractive nature of the profitable, high-performing JLR Arch concept dealer’, an Inchcape statement said.
Meanwhile, Inchcape’s BMW showroom in Cobham, which operated under the Cooper brand name, will transfer to Berry and will join that dealer group’s portfolio of BMW and Mini sites in the south-east.
Employees at both sites are expected to keep their jobs with the respective buyers.
‘Today we have confirmed the sales of two of our sites,’ the statement said. ‘These sales finalise our disposals programme, which has seen us exit us from two geographic markets and helped to create a density of representation within our wider portfolio.
‘We have communicated this message with all of our colleagues at these locations and consultation will begin over the next few days. All colleagues at these locations are expected to transfer to the new owners under TUPE.’
The statement added: ‘These sales enable us to continue reinvesting in our network for future growth, with our Norwich and Guildford JLR Arch concept developments under way, alongside a major refurbishment of Kings Lynn Land Rover service centre and the relocation of Bournemouth Porsche.
‘In addition, we have opened a further four dedicated used car outlets so far this year.’
Car Dealer reported last October about Inchcape’s plans to dispose of a raft of BMW franchises as it sought to exit from the German brand in the UK.
In December 2020, Vertu paid £18.7m in cash for five of Inchcape’s loss-making Cooper BMW and Mini dealerships.
The sites generated £305m and a loss before tax of £6m in 2019.
More recently, Inchcape agreed to sell some of its retail operations in Russia for £70m as it continues plans to focus on distribution.
Last month, Car Dealer reported experts believed Inchcape’s predicted value had increased after its first-quarter results were better than expected.
Experts predicted the company’s intrinsic value could reach 1,045.5p per share by 2024, after Inchcape had outperformed the FTSE 250 by 11.5 per cent so far this year.
Picture: Google image of one of Inchcape’s Cooper BMW showrooms.
