Growing Morgan Automotive Group of Tampa, Fla., purchased 2 Florida Kia dealers from LMP Automotive Holdings Inc. recently and purchased a Florida Stellantis shop in a different, unassociated November deal.
It marks the 3rd car dealership sale revealed by little automobile seller LMP in 3 months. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., business stated in a Monday press release that it is under agreement to offer 2 more car dealerships and is marketing its 2 staying franchised shops.
The offer for Kia of Cape Coral and Kia of Port Charlotte closed on Dec. 15, according to Morgan Automotive CEO Brett Morgan. The dealers’ names stay, he stated.
” That was sort of 3rd time’s the beauty attempting to get those shops since we bid on them when Fuccillo [Automotive Group] was offering,” Brett Morgan informed Automotive News, describing when LMP purchased the dealers in March 2021 And he stated his group was interested when LMP brought the Kia shops to market this year.
LMP was set to offer the 2 Kia Florida car dealerships and 4 other West Virginia shops to Atlantic Coast Automotive Group. In October, LMP stated that offer had actually been ended by the purchaser
” We mored than happy to be able to have another chance to get those 2 dealers,” Morgan stated of the Kia shops. “We enjoy Kia and enjoy those 2 markets.”
The acquisition contributes to Morgan Automotive’s footprint in Southwest Florida. “It’s a growing market in Florida,” Brett Morgan stated.
The Kia dealer acquisitions are the current purchase by Morgan Automotive in a hectic year.
Last month, the group purchased Tallahassee Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram, which likewise offered Fiat automobiles. Brett Morgan stated it marks his group’s very first shop in Tallahassee, Florida’s capital.
Morgan Automotive purchased the shop on Nov. 11 from dealership Ken Marks, Brett Morgan stated. The car dealership was relabelled Tallahassee Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram-Fiat.
The Tallahassee acquisition was the very first because August when Morgan Automotive purchased 3 car dealerships in Sarasota, Fla. In June, Morgan Automotive purchased Ford of Clermont and offered its Genesis of Fort Myers dealer, both in Florida. In May, Morgan Automotive purchased Fuccillo Kia of Clermont, plus 2 domestic-branded dealers in Tampa.
Morgan Automotive does not have any other acquisitions under agreement, though Brett Morgan suggested he anticipates his group will remain in the hunt for more in 2023.
” We are still a really acquisitive business,” he stated. “The truth is it’ll most likely look a lot like this year and the year prior. Difficult to play crystal ball. If the best chances are out there, we’ll do as much as we have the capability to obtain.”
Brett Morgan stated the group stays bullish on Florida, the only state it has car dealerships in.
” We’re not looking anywhere else,” Brett Morgan stated of other states. “But we’re unbiased folks.”
Morgan Automotive now has 61 franchised car dealerships. The group unwinded operations of a used-vehicle shop in Lake City, Fla., this month, Brett Morgan included.
Morgan Automotive ranks No. 8 on Automotive News‘ list of the top 150 dealer groups based in the U.S., selling 60,951 brand-new cars in 2021.
LMP updates
In its Monday news release, LMP stated it in December signed conclusive contracts to offer a Subaru shop and a Kia shop in Mount Hope, W.Va.
LMP did not show if the shops are being offered together or independently and did not call a purchaser or purchasers. LMP did, nevertheless, note that the contracts are anticipated to close in March 2023.
The vehicle seller stated it is marketing its 2 staying dealers, a Chevrolet dealer in Oak Hill, W.Va., and a Buick-GMC shop in Beckley, W.Va.
The business in a November news release stated it had actually closed on the sale of Bachman-Bernard Chevrolet-Buick-GMC-Cadillac in Greeneville, Tenn. LMP did not show when the deal closed or who the purchaser was of that shop.
LMP executives did not react to concerns on that deal.
In October, LMP offered its White Plains Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealer in White Plains, N.Y., to Tasca Automotive Group.
LMP, in its latest release in December, likewise stated it is progressing with its liquidation strategy and prepares to make “a partial circulation to the investors of record start in January 2023.”
” The board and the management group all think that, offered the varied nature of our portfolio, pursuing several deals with various prospective purchasers for possessions or groups of properties provides the very best chance to take full advantage of shareholder worth along with to make the most of the net profits to be dispersed to investors,” LMP CEO Samer Tawfik stated in a Dec. 19 declaration.
