Lithia Motors Inc. has purchased four import brand John Eagle Dealerships in Dallas and Austin, Texas, that will bring in a combined $500 million in annual revenue as it continues to grow its dealership portfolio.
The nation’s third-largest new-vehicle retailer said it purchased John Eagle Honda of Dallas, Honda Cars of Rockwall, Howdy Honda in Austin and Sport City Toyota in Dallas. The deal was completed over the weekend.
“We’re delighted to announce our network expansion in two of the largest markets in our logistically key South-Central region,” Lithia CEO Bryan DeBoer said in a statement Tuesday. “We’re excited to welcome these high-performing teams to the Lithia family. Their reputation in their communities and extraordinary volume reflect a commitment to an exceptional customer experience.”
Lithia, which owns domestic brand stores in Texas, did not disclose the purchase price for the dealerships but said it funded the acquisitions using free cash flows and “existing on-balance sheet capacity.”
Already this year, Lithia has purchased at least 10 dealerships that are expected to generate more than $1 billion in revenue. In July, the company announced the purchase of BMW of San Francisco and a Subaru dealership in Thousand Oaks, Calif., along with a Nissan dealership and a Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram store in Bend, Ore. Other acquisitions this year include Lexus of Sacramento and Lexus of Roseville in California.
The retailer has bold goals to nearly quadruple annual revenue to $50 billion in five years, including partly through dealership acquisitions.
The Presidio Group represented the seller in the transaction.
Lithia, of Medford, Ore., ranks No. 3 on Automotive News‘ list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 180,582 new vehicles in 2019. It retailed 170,423 used vehicles for the same period, ranking it No. 5 on Automotive News‘ list of the top 100 dealership groups in used-vehicle sales.
