WeBuyAnyCar owner buys 20% shareholding in listed dealership group
The owner of WeBuyAnyCar and Cinch, Constellation Automotive, has invested £80m and taken a significant minority stake in car dealership group Lookers.
It bought most of the 78m shares from motor retail veteran Tony Bramall, who stepped down as a non-executive director from the Lookers board in December 2020 after 14 years.
Constellation, which now has a 19.9% stake in Lookers, paid 102p for most of the shares – around 50% more than the shares were trading at for the past nine months.
It is three years since Lookers’ shares were trading above 100p.
Lookers chairman Ian Bull said: “Their investment endorses the board’s view that the group remains significantly undervalued.
“As outlined in our recent announcement, trading performance is strong, with an excellent new car order bank and the group has a clear strategic framework to deliver our aspiration to become ‘The UK’s leading integrated automotive retail and services group’.”
Constellation has been in contact with Lookers about its investment in the group and “has indicated its support of Lookers recently outlined strategy and senior leadership”.
The group, formerly known as British Car Auctions, owns brands including WeBuyAnyCar, Cinch and CarNext and is backed by private equity fund owner TDR Capital.
Earlier this month Manchester-based Lookers, which is one of Britain’s largest car retailers with 150 showrooms nationwide, said it was on track for record breaking profits.
In a year-end trading update, Lookers said it was expecting profits of £86m for 2021, a record high for the group and more than eight times what it made in 2020.
The firm now plans to restore its dividend as well as plough cash back into the business and roll out a new strategy but it said it remained cautious for the year ahead as supply chain issues and global chip shortage remained a challenge.
