Inchape Retail sold
The big industry news this month is that another well-known British retail chain has been bought by an American company. This time it’s the retail arm of Inchape, which has 81 sites (and 3600 staff) in the UK, whose heritage includes brands such as Mann Egerton and H A Fox, and represents makes including Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Land-Rover, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, MINI, Porsche, smart, Toyota and Volkswagen.
Subject to regulatory approval, Inchape’s UK retail network is being sold, for £346million, to Group 1 Automotive UK, a wholly-owned subsidiary of American company Group 1 Automotive Inc. Group 1’s name is already familiar in the UK, having been here since 2007 and representing 15 brands at 55 dealerships. Assuming the deal is approved, Inchape shareholders look set to receive £100million of the proceeds via a share buyback within the next 12 months.
Though best-known to most in the UK for its retail operations,
