7th Apr 2005 07:01
Inchcape PLC07 April 2005 7 April 2005 Inchcape expands its UK Mercedes-Benz interests Inchcape plc (Inchcape), the international automotive services group, todayannounces the acquisition of the Robert Smith Group Limited, and itssubsidiaries, which consists of six Mercedes-Benz dealerships and one smartdealership. Inchcape now has a UK representation of fourteen Mercedes-Benzdealerships including the largest contiguous territory for Mercedes-Benz andsmart in the UK. The acquisition, on 6 April 2005, adds Mercedes-Benz dealerships in: Liverpool,Warrington, Chester, Southport, West Kirby and Llandudno to Inchcape'sportfolio. The new smart dealership is located in Liverpool. Together, thesesites generated new car sales of some 2,100 units and used car sales of 1,100units in 2004. The total cash consideration paid for the business will be c. £18.1m, subject tofinalisation of completion accounts, and includes around £7.2m in respect ofgoodwill. These new dealerships create a further scale market area for Inchcape. Thelargest single contiguous territory in the UK for Mercedes-Benz was created in2004 when Inchcape acquired dealerships in Nottingham, Leicester, Derby,Mansfield and Loughborough adding to its original market area of Coventry,Stratford-upon-Avon and Oxford. Peter Johnson, Group Chief Executive of Inchcape, commented: "This acquisition demonstrates our commitment to build upon our relationshipwith Mercedes-Benz, and leaves us well placed to continue delivering on our UKgrowth strategy of representing between 5.0% to 10.0% of our chosen partners'national sales volumes. "Inchcape's success in building scale contiguous territories should result inenhanced returns for our shareholders whilst, importantly, improving our servicelevels to our customers." Notes to editors For further information, please contact: Group Communications, Inchcape plc020 7546 0022 Hogarth Partnership Limited (John Olsen/Barnaby Fry)020 7357 9477 Inchcape, an international automotive services group, provides qualityrepresentation for its manufacturer partners, a choice of channels to market andproducts for its retail customers and a range of business services for itscorporate customers. Operations are focused on the UK, Greece, Belgium,Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. Inchcape's activities include exclusiveImport, Distribution and Retail, Business Services, automotive E-commerce andFinancial Services. Our key manufacturer partners are Toyota/Lexus, Subaru, BMW,the Premier Automotive Group of Ford, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen. For further information, visit us at www.inchcape.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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