Sewell, which now owns 18 Texas dealerships, described the deal as the ‘merging of two great family brands.’
Sewell Automotive Companies has expanded its portfolio of North Texas car dealerships with the acquisitions of Classic BMW and MINI of Plano from Dallas’ Maas family.
The Classic BMW dealership, the Dallas region’s first BMW retailer, was opened in Richardson by Lee Maas in 1971. Now co-located on a 24-acre campus in Plano with MINI of Plano, the dealership has grown into one of the largest BMW dealerships in the country, according to the Maas family.
Fifty years after its initial opening, the BMW and MINI dealerships will now be owned and operated by another storied family in the Dallas automotive space — the Sewell family.
“In many ways, this is the merging of two great family brands,” Sewell president Carl Sewell III, grandson of founder Carl Sewell Sr., said in a statement.
The dealership reopened as Sewell BMW MINI of Plano on Oct. 5.
Neither party has disclosed the financial terms of the deal, though it does not include the Maas family’s racing team Fast Track Racing LLC.
Sewell approached the Maas family about acquiring the dealership through auto retail investment banking group Presidio Group LLC, Classic BMW president Eric Maas said.
“My family wouldn’t consider selling unless we were assured that our legacy of caring for our customers and employees would be continued at the same high standard,” Maas said.
Presidio Group has been involved in nearly all of the largest dealership sales in North Texas in recent years. Presidio advised Park Place Dealerships on its sale of eight Texas dealerships valued at $735 million to Asbury Automotive Group. It also advised John Eagle Dealerships on its sale of six dealerships to Lithia Motors in a deal expected to bring an additional $1.1 billion in annual revenue to Lithia.
When it announced the John Eagle deal a year ago, Presidio Group described the Texas dealership market as “super hot.” Despite inventory shortages and declines in revenue, dealerships were more profitable last year on average, according to Kerrigan Advisors’s The Blue Sky Report.
According to the report, a high demand for vehicles in the state of Texas and “tremendous access to capital” are expected to drive more deal activity this year.
With the latest acquisition, Sewell now owns 18 dealerships across Texas representing Audi, BMW, Buick, Cadillac, GMC, INFINITI, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lexus and more.
Kerrigan Advisors is the leading exclusive sell-side advisor and thought partner to auto dealers nationwide. Since its founding in 2014, the firm has led the industry with the sale of over 280 auto dealerships representing $9 billion in client proceeds, including the third largest transaction in auto retail history – the sale of Jim Koons Automotive Companies to Asbury Automotive Group. Kerrigan Advisors advises the industry’s leading dealership groups, enhancing value through the lifecycle of growing, operating and, when the time is right, selling their businesses. Led by a team of veteran industry experts with backgrounds in investment banking, private equity, consulting, accounting, finance and real estate, we not take listings nor do we employ a brokerage model; rather we develop a customized sales approach for each client to achieve their personal and financial goals. In addition to the firm’s sell-side advisory services, Kerrigan Advisors also provides a suite of automobile dealership consulting and investor services including growth strategy, market valuation assessments, capital allocation, transactional due diligence, open point proposals, operational improvement and real estate due diligence.
Kerrigan Advisors monitors conditions in the buy/sell market and publishes an in-depth analysis each quarter in The Blue Sky Report®, the industry authority on dealership buy/sell market trends and valuations and includes Kerrigan Advisors’ signature blue sky charts, multiples and analysis for each franchise in the luxury and non-luxury segments. To download a preview of the report, click here. The firm also releases The Kerrigan Index™ comprised of the seven publicly traded auto retail companies with operations focused on the US market. The Kerrigan Auto Retail Index is designed to track dealership valuation trends, while also providing key insights into factors influencing auto retail. To access The Kerrigan Index™, click here. To read the 2024 Kerrigan Dealer Survey, click here. To read the 2024 Kerrigan OEM Survey, click here. Kerrigan Advisors also is the co-author of NADA’s Guide to Buying and Selling a Dealership.
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