CARY, N.C. -

The second half of the year has begun with a flurry of news of moves in the dealership buy-sell space, including the closing of Asbury Automotive Group’s purchase of certain assets of Park Place Dealerships.

That deal, which was announced back in December, nearly scrapped in March before being revitalized in July and closing in August, has certainly been the largest and perhaps most significant in the industry.

But there’s been a buzz throughout the space in recent weeks, be it from publicly traded dealership groups or outside interests — including Hollywood.

Over the course of July 7 to Aug. 4, Lithia Motors made four announcements regarding dealership purchases it made throughout California, Texas and Oregon.

Meanwhile, it was also announced in July that actor/producer Mark Wahlberg and his business partner, Jay Feldman, had purchased two dealerships in Columbus, Ohio from the Haydocy family: Haydocy Buick GMC and Haydocy Airstream & RV, which have been renamed Mark Wahlberg Buick GMC and Mark Wahlberg Airstream & RV.

About a month later, the pair purchased another store in town (Jack Maxton Chevrolet), which is renamed Mark Wahlberg Chevrolet of Worthington.

And then, of course, the Asbury-Park Place deal closing.

The Presidio Group, an investment bank specializing in retail automotive and related M&A transactions, was the exclusive M&A advisor to Park Place in the Asbury deal.

Not only was the Asbury deal one the largest dealership buy-sell transactions ever, it was Presidio’s second in the Dallas-Fort Worth market in the month of August.

Auto Remarketing caught up with Brodie Cobb, founder and CEO of The Presidio Group, in early August to discuss the increased activity in the dealership buy-sell space.

Part of the reason for the uptick in activity, he said, is just the natural cycle of career progression, which impacts auto retail just like any other sector.

And transactions that were initially slated to close in the spring months were delayed amid the COVD-19 pandemic. That has since begun to open back up in a big way.

“We had a number of transactions that were scheduled to close in March, April and May, and all of those transactions got delayed,” Cobb said in the early August interview. “And several of them have closed since and we have more coming in the next few weeks.

“I would say that’s probably true with others, so that’s why you’re hearing about transactions that got delayed. We closed one transaction in March, April and May. So, for those three months, we had a couple of billion dollars’ worth of transactions scheduled to close and we only got one closed in that whole period of time,” he said. “But by the end of August, we will have more than $2 billion worth of transactions closed (year-to-date).”

Another driver for buy-sell gains in just how attractive the auto retail space can be for investors, as it presents a “good return on invested capital,” Cobb said.

“We’re getting a lot of calls from deep-pocketed capital that’s sophisticated,” he said. “Some are already in the auto retail business, i.e. they own dealerships and they have assets already.  And then some who don’t and would like to. And we’re seeing more of that than ever.”

That was evident in the Park Place sale process, as “a lot of new and very interesting, intriguing potential buyers in the marketplace that we had not seen before” emerged, Cobb said.

In general, and not specific to the Park Place deal, one of the outside entrants who are interested in the dealership buy-sell space includes private-equity groups.

“The ones that we tend to focus on are those who have a little longer duration investments. And so, what I mean by that is, that their hold period in that investment is longer than maybe average private-equity firm,” Cobb said.

“And then the other entrant that is really come into the space are billion-dollar-plus family offices who have diverse holdings that have identified auto retail sector as one that could produce an attractive return on invested capital,” he said. “And it is, in fact attractive.”

Speaking of attractive, the area of the U.S. where Presidio advised on recent deals is certainly a hot spot: Texas.

In July, it was announced that Park Place Dealerships completed the sale of Jaguar North Austin and Land Rover North Austin in Austin, Texas, to Sewell Automotive. Both Park Place and Sewell are Texas-based groups.

Lithia’s most recent purchase was of four John Eagle Dealerships locations in Dallas and Austin.

“Texas is super hot.  It’s a very business-friendly place. It’s booming. Dallas-Fort Worth, I think, is still No. 1 (relocation) market in the country. Corporations are relocating there, not the least of which was Toyota years ago,” Cobb said.

“There’s no state income tax … it’s a very, very strong, large market, growing market,” he said.  “It’s incredible. It’s been attractive for a long time, but it’s probably even more attractive today than ever.”

And perhaps the same could be said for dealership buy-sell, in general.