4:49 am, April 6, 2024
Shareholders in the former Pendragon chain are set for a near-£360m windfall following its buyout.
They’ll be getting £358m via a special dividend of 24.5p per existing ordinary share, after the sale of Pendragon’s Stratstone and Evans Halshaw dealerships plus its leasing division to US dealer group Lithia & Driveway, which was completed at the end of January.
The deal also saw Pendragon’s dealer management software arm Pinewood being hived off to take Pendragon’s place on the London Stock Exchange, with Pendragon renamed Pinewood Technologies Group and led by Bill Berman.
Lithia’s offer of 35.4p per share was backed last October by almost 99% of those shareholders who chose to vote.
In a London Stock Exchange notification on Friday, Pinewood said it had published a circular with the details of the payment and that the circular would be sent to shareholders.
Subject to approval at the general meeting, which is taking place in London at 11am on April 22, shareholders who are on the register at 6pm that day will get their payment on May 7.
Under a capital reorganisation, Pinewood is also proposing that one new ordinary share of £1 each will be issued for every 20 existing ordinary shares of 5p each.
The reorganisation will effectively reduce the number of ordinary shares held by shareholders but not the proportion of the issued share capital held by the company, give or take fractional entitlements.
And although the new ordinary shares will have a different nominal value to the existing ordinary shares, they’ll still be traded on the London Stock Exchange in the same way as the existing ordinary shares and will carry the same rights.
The buyout – which is expected to generate $4.5bn (circa £3.6bn) in annual revenue – has seen Pendragon’s dealer group and leasing business combined with luxury car dealer group Jardine, which Lithia bought in March 2023 for £300m, with the new and larger group headed by Neil Williamson.
The acquisition brought the curtain down on what became a tense four-horse race to buy Pendragon’s assets.
Lithia beat a rival offer from Hedin, which teamed up with Sytner owner Penske Automotive to make a joint bid, and saw off an approach AutoNation – America’s biggest dealer group – as well.
Yesterday, Car Dealer reported that AutoNation is now looking to snap up Inchcape’s UK dealerships.
Pictured via Google Street View is the Portsmouth branch of Evans Halshaw Vauxhall
