Sunrise Auto Group is out of the car dealer business.
Bob Berkheimer’s company has sold its last dealership, Sunrise Buick GMC Covington Pike in Memphis, to locally owned Jim Keras Automotive Group, according to Kerrigan Advisors, which represented the seller in the transaction.
“Collaborating with Bob and his team on the sale of all three of his dealerships has been a privilege,” Kerrigan senior vice president Gabe Robleto said, “and we are gratified that we were able to find the ideal buyer for this final dealership, bringing his legacy with Sunrise Automotive to a successful close.”
Sunrise sold its other two dealerships to Lithia and Driveway in June.
Berkheimer founded Sunrise Auto Group more than 30 years ago, and his dealerships won General Motors’ Mark of Excellence and Dealer of the Year awards multiple times. Sunrise Buick GMC Covington Pike is currently the second-highest-volume Buick GMC dealership in the Memphis market.
Berkheimer expressed his “heartfelt gratitude to our employees and the Memphis community for their loyalty to our dealerships over the past few decades. I am thrilled we found such a strong fit for our Covington Pike dealership community in Jim Keras Automotive.”
Jim Keras Automotive operates six dealerships in Tennessee and Missouri.
Kerrigan Advisors is the leading 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 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. The firm 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, accounting, finance and real estate, Kerrigan Advisors does not take listings, rather they 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 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®, which 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 monthly The Kerrigan Index™ composed 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 2023 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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