12th May 2005 07:00
Lookers PLC12 May 2005 12 May 2005 LOOKERS plc AGM STATEMENT At today's Annual General Meeting of Lookers plc, Fred Maguire, Chairman, willmake the following statement: "The Company made good progress again last year and further consolidated itsposition as one of the UK's leading motor retail groups through a series ofstrategic acquisitions and significant investment across the business. We have a number of initiatives in place to further improve revenue from ourother income streams and we continue to actively target opportunities to deliverfurther growth. Acquisition We are pleased to announce that we have completed the acquisition of thebusiness and certain assets of Ian Shipton Cars (IS Cars), a leading used carsupermarket in Burton-upon-Trent, in line with our stated strategy of broadeningour revenue streams. IS Cars is a well established and successful operator in the independent usedcar supermarket sector and has been trading for over 30 years. Lookers plc ispaying approximately £12.0m for the trading name and assets of the business. The assets acquired includes the seven and a half acre site in Burton-upon-Trentfrom where IS Cars sells around 7000 vehicles a year. The acquisition will addaround £50m to Lookers plc turnover and should be earnings enhancing from theoutset. The value of the net assets acquired is approximately £9.0m and theprofits attributable to these assets on a pro forma basis were approximately£1.0m for the year ended 30 June 2004. This acquisition further increases Lookers' share of the 7.7 million used carmarket and is the second such acquisition in 2005, following our acquisition ofBristol Trade Centre (BTC) in January. The newly acquired business will continue to trade under its existing name as aseparate division within Lookers plc. Senior operational management will remainin place. Although the trading environment for new cars has continued to soften, the Groupcontinues to make satisfactory progress including market share gains. Tradingin our franchised dealer network in the first quarter of 2005, whilst behindthat of 2004, (a record first quarter) is in line with our expectations. Within our broad portfolio of volume and prestige franchises there are many morenew models being introduced by our manufacturer partners. The remainder of thisyear, in particular, will benefit from the launch of the Bentley ContinentalFlying Spur, the Aston Martin V8 Vantage, the Range Rover Sport and the newLexus GS. We have, in fact, sold out our entire allocation of these models forthe foreseeable future. In addition, the contributions from FPS Distribution Limited (FPS) and BTC,which are not impacted by the new car market, have been strong. This year will see the positive effect on operating profits of therationalisation decisions taken in 2004, including our decision to exit the MGRover franchise. The costs of this were fully provided for in the lastfinancial year. Businesses acquired in the second half of last year, including FPS andVolkswagen dealerships in Northallerton and Darlington and Saab in Chester havebeen fully integrated into the Group. We are particularly delighted with theperformance of FPS which together with BTC and IS Cars will further enhance thebalance of the business going forward". For further information: Ken Surgenor, Chief Executive Telephone: 0161 291 0043 David Dyson, Finance Director Lookers plc Andrew Hayes/James Hill Telephone: 020 7796 4133 gcg hudson sandler This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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