British Car Auctions revs up reverse takeover deal

A LISTED investment vehicle looks set to acquire the owner of North West based webuyanycar.com in a £1bn+ deal.

Shares in Haversham Holdings, an AIM-listed acquisition vehicle set up by Avril Palmer-Baunack, the former chairwoman of Stobart Group, were suspended this morning as it confirmed it was in “very advanced” talks over an acquisition, which is understood to be BCA – the private equity owned used-car dealership group

The reverse takeover deal, will mean that BCA becomes a listed business five months after a float was shelved because investors baulked at the valuation.

Haversham was floated last autumn when it raised £30m to hunt down deals. Ms Palmer-Baunack previously ran the used-car auctioneer Universal Salvage and has teamed up with James Corsellis and Mark Watts, of Marwyn Capital, to form the acquisition vehicle.

BCA is owned by Clayton Dubilier & Rice, the US venture capital fund, which holds 70% of the business with 80 managers holding the rest. The fund, which counts Sir Terry Leahy, the former Tesco chief executive, as an adviser, is expected to hold a 10% stake in Haversham should the deal be finalised.

Aviva Investors, Artemis, Invesco and Schroders are investors in Haversham.

BCA has changed hands many times since it was sold to a private equity buyer in the mid-1980s.  It  has grown under the CD&R ownership and operates in 12 European countries and Brazil. It is more than twice the size of its nearest competitor, with revenue of £440m.

Ms Palmer-Baunack had a short-lived stint at North West-based Stobart two years ago.  She lasted just 10 weeks on the board, before a bust-up with family directors of Stobart, but still earned more than £1m during this time.

Manchester-based Zeus Capital is Haversham’s joint broker alongside Cenkos Securities, which is its nominated adviser.