Automotive retail group Marshall Motor has announced the acquisition of Motorline for £64.5m in cash.
The company also said on Thursday that it has acquired a related freehold property for £2.9m and has the option to buy two additional strategic freehold properties for £24.9m.
Motorline is a multi-franchise dealer group headquartered in Canterbury and operating across Kent, West Sussex, Surrey, Berkshire, Bristol, South Wales and the West Midlands. It represents ten brands through 48 operating franchises including Toyota, Lexus, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Audi, ŠKODA, Nissan, Peugeot, and Maserati. It also operates four Volkswagen Group Trade Parts Specialist (TPS) businesses and five used car centres.
For the year to the end of December 2020, Motorline’s consolidated revenues were £695.2m, while pre-tax profit was £6..1m.
Chief executive Daksh Gupta said: “We are delighted to announce the acquisition of Motorline in line with our strategy which includes growing both further scale with existing brand partners and developing scaled relationships with selected new brand partners.
“Motorline is an extremely well-respected, long-standing business. The Obee family have overseen a significant expansion of the business in recent years and have invested in a market-leading property portfolio.
“We are delighted to begin new and significant partnerships with Toyota/Lexus and Hyundai. These brands, with a combined market share in the UK of over 11%, have been a target for the group for some time and the acquisition of Motorline provides immediate scale with each of them.”
