Herb Chambers Sells His Dealerships

Wow that is a lot more than I would of figured his ‘dynasty’ was worth. Good for him.

 

I wonder if he sold the business and kept the properties, where now they would also pay him rent ?

 

I remember his Chasing Classic Car episode with a beautiful Daytona.

 

Yeah, but here we've got $590 million for the RE.

What's fascinating is that 40 years to build a monster chain of dealerships (which probably cost him every waking moment for most of 40 years) and sell for $1.34B and the some 25 year olds start "Zurd" a B2B supply chain app and sell it after 4 years for a billion. See, e.g. Jet.com.

 

its a crazy world we live in.

Carvana does 6x the sales Chambers does but gets almost 30x the Price to Sales multiple.
I bet Chambers makes more money too.

 

when I first saw the number I thought it seemed low....

$3.3b in revenue across 52 stores. but the valuation is $25m per store which is pretty much bang on average, including real estate. you could argue he could have held out for more since he has great stores (Toyota, Lexus, Porsche etc) and I'm assuming they're well run, but then he sold to one of the largest publicly traded auto groups so maybe that was the best/only buyer?

I think it says more about how crazy speculative valuations for startups get than how established, cash flowing businesses are valued.

 

I recently shopped three local Audi stores. The third was HC Audi Brookline. I went in there thinking it was going to be a waste of time but was really surprised to see how accommodating they were. No BS! My wife drove out two hours later with a deal that I thought was unlikely.

 

SQ5. Went from an X5, two Velars to an X3 then to the SQ5. I have to say, the SQ5 is very nIce.

 

My moral issue with tech valuations. I have to make a profit every 14 days or I'm dead in the water. Amazon can lose billions a quarter for a decade, burn burn burn, annihilate its brick and mortar competition by running at losses, and then be the last standing...

 

We have a huge chain here - Woodhouse.

Bob Woodhouse started it as a Ford dealer in about 1975, he built it up big,
all the GM's and many others, and sold it for (I think) 700 million maybe 12-15 years ago.
The new owners added Mercedes, Infiniti, Honda, Toyota...23 brands total now.
BIG money in service and repair....?

I wonder what the net worth of Hendrick, Penske, is?

Lithia came in here thinking they would take over, and promptly got run out of town....

https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crain/an3219542277LMDFA_supp/index.php?startid=S5#/p/S6

 

Have purchased several cars from Chambers dealerships. Lexus GX460, Porsche 911C2S, Ford Explorer. Always competitive in price. Service well above average. Hopefully new owners maintain that level.