9:36 am, March 31, 2021
Pendragon has finished shedding its US interests with the completion of the sale of its Hornburg Jaguar Land Rover dealership in Santa Monica – for one million pounds less than originally planned.
The California showroom has been sold to Redwood Automotive LLC for £10.8m, said Pendragon in an announcement issued via the London Stock Exchange this morning (Mar 31).
Last December, though, it said it had agreed to sell Redwood the Santa Monica site for £11.8m.
Redwood operates a privately owned dealership group.
It follows last month’s completion of the sale of its sister Hornburg JLR dealership in Los Angeles.
Pendragon said in today’s announcement that the sale of all its US dealerships had netted it £106.m in total.
The motor retailer chain, which operates the Evans Halshaw, Stratstone, Car Store, Pinewood, and Quickco brands in the UK, said in 2017 that it was getting rid of its US arm as part of a restructuring operation.
However, current chief executive Bill Berman told Car Dealer last May that he would never have sold the American Pendragon businesses if he’d been in charge back then.
Pendragon offloaded its Puente Hills Chevrolet showroom to JBR Automotive Inc at a £700,000 loss in February 2020.
The group also sold two Jaguar Land Rover dealerships in California for £60m in May 2019, and sold its sole US-based Aston Martin dealership to US Auto Trust in July 2018 for £3.1m.
Last Wednesday (Mar 24), it posted a full-year pre-tax profit of £8.2m for 2020.
Pendragon takes £700,000 hit on selling Chevrolet dealership
Image: Google Street View
