By Alysha Webb, Editor and Publisher
Recent headlines in the automotive press have offered a seemingly contradictory picture of the buy sell market where the publics are concerned. Asbury CEO Craig Monaghan said his publicly-listed group is upping its acquisition target to $500 million over the next 18 months. A few days earlier, a headline said Group 1, another public, was slowing its acquisition pace because prices were too high. But a closer read showed that headline to be deceptive. Earl Hesterberg, CEO of Group 1, said he was slowing the pace right now but “that could change tomorrow.”
This week’s issue looks at another area where reading closely is very important, the section of a buy sell agreement dealing with franchise approval. A buyer’s concerns are quite different than a seller’s, cautions attorney Joseph Aboyoun. The buyer needs to look for unreasonable performance requirements from the manufacturer, among other details.
Also in this issue, I talk with Edward Dobbs and Chris Crosby of Dobbs Management Services, a family office. Family offices, which invest the resources of one family, are becoming bigger players in the dealership buy sell world. The Dobbs family exited the automotive dealership business more than a decade ago. They recently jumped back in, but on the heavy-duty truck side. Dobbs and Crosby discuss why the heavy-duty segment is appealing and why the automotive retailing sector wasn’t.
We also have the latest transactions in our Transaction News Section.
Enjoy!
