Acquisition
Inchcape PLC
30 August 2006
30 August 2006
FURTHER SCALE EXPANSION IN HIGH GROWTH RUSSIAN MARKET
Acquisition of 75.1% shareholding in Toyota/Lexus retail business
in St Petersburg
Inchcape plc, the international automotive retail group, today announces a
further significant expansion into the high growth Russian market through
reaching an agreement to acquire a majority stake in the Axel Car Toyota and
Lexus retail and service business in St Petersburg.
Russia's car market is the largest in Central and Eastern Europe and is
experiencing rapid growth. In recent years foreign brands' share of overall
sales in Russia have been increasing strongly with a 55% year on year increase
in sales in the first six months of 2006 to 400,000 units.
St Petersburg is the second largest metro market in Russia. Foreign brand
registrations in St Petersburg in the first six months of 2006 were 36,000
representing 9% of all foreign brand sales in Russia for the period.
Toyota is one of the most successful foreign brands in Russia with sales of
around 40,000 units in the first six months of 2006 and a market share of
foreign brand car sales of around 10%. Lexus sales were over 4,200, a market
share of just over 1%.
Axel Car is part of the Olimp Group, a leading dealer group in St Petersburg
representing a number of brands including Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep,
Audi, Peugeot and Chery. Olimp has, through Axel Car, built a strong position
for Toyota and Lexus in the city with two Toyota retail and service centres, one
Lexus retail and service centre and one city centre showroom for Lexus.
A new Russian company will be established to purchase the goodwill and assets of
Axel Car's Toyota/Lexus business, which will be owned 75.1% by Inchcape and 24.9
% by the Axel Car shareholders. Inchcape will pay up to £38m from existing cash
resources for its shareholding including related property. Completion of the
acquisition is subject to approval of regulatory authorities in Russia.
Andre Lacroix, Group Chief Executive of Inchcape, commented:
'This acquisition provides an immediate entry into Russia with a successful and
established business in the key growth market of St Petersburg. Together with
the previously announced joint venture with Independence in Moscow we now have
two strong anchor points in Russia and are extremely well placed to build a
profitable scale business'.-
Evgeny Voytenkov, Chairman of Axel Car, commented:
'Inchcape is one of the world's leading car retailers. We are excited to have
this excellent opportunity to build a partnership with a strong international
group, which will further strengthen our position in the St Petersburg market
with one of the most successful foreign brands in Russia.'
Notes to editors
For further information, please contact:
Group Communications, Inchcape plc
020 7546 0022
Hogarth Partnership Limited (John Olsen / Barnaby Fry)
020 7357 9477
Inchcape is a scale automotive retail group operating in Australia, Belgium,
Greece, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK. The Group also has operations in a
number of other global markets. In addition to growing our core businesses, we
are looking to develop scale operations in new and emerging regions. We
represent leading automotive brands and operate either a retail, or a vertically
integrated retail model (i.e. exclusive distribution and retail), depending on
the market. Our current key manufacturer partners are Toyota/Lexus, Subaru,
BMW, the Premier Automotive Group of Ford, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen,
Audi and Honda.
For further information, visit us at www.inchcape.com
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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