Lookers plc acquires Addison Motors Limited

Lookers plc, one of the leading UK motor retail and aftersales service groups, announces that it has acquired Addison Motors Limited, trading as Benfield Motor Group ("Benfield"), for £87.5m in cash.

The acquisition is being funded using new banking facilities made available to Lookers by Bank of Ireland, Barclays Bank, HSBC Bank, Lloyds Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Yorkshire Bank.

Benfield was founded in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1957 and is one of the UK's largest private motor retailing companies. The Company has 1,600 employees working in 30 dealerships located across the North of England and Scotland. Benfield's franchises include Audi, VW, VW Commercial Vehicles, Skoda, Ford, Toyota, Lexus, Hyundai, Kia, Renault, Dacia, Nissan and Honda. It offers sales, service, parts and bodyshop facilities for new and used cars and commercial vehicles.

The statutory accounts for Addison for the year ended 31 December 2014 reported revenue of £699.7 million and profit before tax of £7 million. The Company had gross assets of £154.6 million and net assets of £55.0 million.

The acquisition is expected to be immediately earnings enhancing for the group.

Lookers Chief Executive, Andy Bruce, said: "We are delighted to have acquired this respected and long established family business. A key attraction for us is the cultural fit. Both Lookers and Benfield share an approach which puts employees and customers at the heart of our business and this acquisition will ensure that continues.

We are committed to preserving and nurturing this culture as well as putting in place new initiatives which allows Benfield to benefit from our larger scale and leverage the investments we have made. The acquisition also strengthens our relationship with a number of our key manufacturer partners and gives us a truly national footprint by adding to our presence in the North East of the UK.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all of the employees of Benfield to the wider Lookers family."