A third suitor has approached the owner of the Evans Halshaw and Stratstone with a view to buying the British car dealership business.
Multi-billion dollar Florida-based auto retailer AutoNation Inc is the latest bidder to throw its hat into the ring for Nottingham’s Pendragon Group.
It has offered 32p a share for the business, which values it at almost £450 million. That matches the figure offered last week in a joint approach by PAG International – which owns the prestige Sytner chain – and Sweden’s Hedin Mobility Group.
That was the second bid from PAG and Hedin (Pendragon’s top shareholder) in a matter of days and followed news that Pendragon wanted to sell Evans Halshaw, Stratstone and CarStore to America’s biggest motor retailer, Lithia Motors, for £250 million.
As part of that deal it will keep hold of its dealer management software arm, Pinewood, while rolling it out to Lithia’s 50 UK sites and North American operations.
In the past few weeks Pe …
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