THE owner of Benfield Motor Group has been bought by Lookers for £87.5m.
Addison Motors operates six of its 30 dealerships in Yorkshire, selling Skoda, Ford, Hyundai, Lexus and Toyota vehicles, while Lookers has Ford and Kia dealerships in Sheffield and a Volkswagen dealership in Northallerton.
Benfield Motor Group is one of the UK’s largest private motor retailing companies, with 1,600 employees working across the North East, Yorkshire, Cumbria and South West Scotland.
The Newcastle-based group had a turnover of close to £700m, with pre-tax profits of £7m for the year to the end of December 2014. It had gross assets of £154.6m and net assets of £55m.
The acquisition is being funded by new banking facilities from Bank of Ireland, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Yorkshire Bank and The Royal Bank of Scotland. Lookers said the acquisition would be immediately earnings enhancing for the group.
Andy Bruce, Lookers chief executive, said: “A key attraction for us is the cultural fit. Both Lookers and Benfield share an approach which puts employees and customers at the heart of our business and this acquisition will ensure that continues.
“The acquisition also strengthens our relationship with a number of our key manufacturer partners and gives us a truly national footprint by adding to our presence in the North East of the UK.”
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