CARY, N.C. -

Two of the nation’s publicly traded dealership groups announced respective acquisitions Monday, including one with a price tag in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Group 1 Automotive has entered a deal to buy Prime Automotive Group’s 30 dealerships and three collision centers in a deal that’s expected to be for $880 million.

Meanwhile, LMP Automotive Holdings has reached a deal to acquire an 85% stake in Alan Jay Automotive Network. That transaction, which includes the associated real estate as well, has an aggregate purchase price of roughly $50 million for goodwill and an aggregate real estate purchase price of approximately $44.1 million.

LMP also announced that it also entered a deal to buy five import-brand dealerships in Texas along with the associated real estate. LMP did not share the name of the stores or group, but noted the aggregate purchase price was roughly $62.5 million for goodwill and has an aggregate real estate purchase price of about $55 million.

As for the Group 1 purchase, Prime has 30 dealerships and three collision centers throughout the Mid-Atlantic and New England.

Its franchises include Acura, Airstream, Audi, BMW, Buick, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, GMC, Honda, Jeep, Land Rover, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, MINI, Porsche, RAM, Subaru, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo.

It is headquartered in Westwood, Mass., and its stores pulled in $1.8 billion in revenues last year and retailed more than 52,000 vehicles.

“Group 1 has successfully operated in the Northeastern U.S. for many years. We are pleased to have this opportunity to leverage our existing cost structure and to further diversify our U.S. footprint,” Group 1 president and chief executive officer Earl Hesterberg said in a news release.

Added Daryl Kenningham, who is Group 1’s president of U.S. and Brazilian operations: “We know Prime's markets well and the opportunities they represent.  We are also proud to welcome Prime Automotive’s 1,800 employees as new teammates to the Group 1 family. 

“The addition of Prime Automotive enables us to extend our reach of AcceleRide, Group 1’s industry leading digital retailing process, to even more customers,” he said.

Moving over to LMP’s purchases, the Alan Jay group has 12 stores in Florida. The acquisition of the 85% stake is expected to generate $345 million in annualized revenues and adjusted EBITDA of $18.3 million.

The purchase is likely to close in the fourth quarter.

“First, I would like to welcome Alan Jay Wildstein, Michael Witham and James Lizotte to the LMP organization. Upon close, Alan Jay Wildstein will be regional vice president at LMP, partner, as well as dealer operator of the acquired dealership group,” LMP chief operating officer Richard Aldahan said in the release.

“Michael Witham will continue to be the group’s chief operating officer, along with James Lizotte who will be vice president of operations, each of whom have over 30 years’ experience in the automotive industry. I look forward to working with each of them in our future partnership. This acquisition will further expand our management team and Southeast footprint. We intend to continue expanding aggressively in this region as we are seeing a record amount of interest in our dealer partner model.”

Aldahan added: “The operating assets to be acquired include one pre-owned center and 21 new vehicle franchises consisting of: one Buick, one Cadillac, two Chevrolet, one GMC, two Chrysler, two Dodge, two Jeep, two Ram, two Ford, one Lincoln, one KIA, one Nissan, one Toyota, one Maserati and one Alfa Romeo.”

LMP CEO Sam Tawfik said: “This acquisition, combined with our previously announced acquisitions, brings LMP’s total franchise and dealership count to 51 and 35, respectively, with consolidated annualized revenue, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA per share run rate expected to be approximately $1.6 billion, $104 million, and $9.32, respectively.” 

Tawfik added: “I also would like to welcome Alan Jay Wildstein and his team to the LMP organization. We are honored to have Mr. Wildstein as regional vice president of LMP.”

Next up, LMP’s Texas purchase is expected to close in Q4. It is anticipated that deal will add about $592 million in annualized revenues and adjusted EBITDA of $35 million.

Aldahan, the LMP COO, said: “This acquisition will further expand our management team and footprint in the central region. This will be the final acquisition we expect to close this year, which completes our Stage 2 acquisition plan. All future perspective acquisitions we expect to consolidate in our Stage 3 plan for closings in 2022.”

Tawfik, the LMP CEO, said: “Upon closing this acquisition, combined with our previously announced acquisitions, LMP’s total franchise and dealership count will be 56 and 40, respectively, with consolidated annualized revenue, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA per share run rate expected to be approximately $2.2 billion, $137 million, and $12.27, respectively.”