Rising Morgan Automotive Group of Tampa, Fla., purchased two Florida Kia dealerships from LMP Automotive Holdings Inc. final week and purchased a Florida Stellantis retailer in a separate, unrelated November transaction.

It marks the third dealership sale introduced by small auto retailer LMP in three months. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., firm stated in a Monday information launch that it’s underneath contract to promote two extra dealerships and is advertising and marketing its two remaining franchised shops.

The deal for Kia of Cape Coral and Kia of Port Charlotte closed on Dec. 15, in response to Morgan Automotive CEO Brett Morgan. The dealerships’ names stay, he stated.

“That was type of third time’s the allure making an attempt to accumulate these shops as a result of we bid on them when Fuccillo [Automotive Group] was promoting,” Brett Morgan informed Automotive Information, referring to when LMP purchased the dealerships in March 2021. And he stated his group was when LMP introduced the Kia shops to market this 12 months.

LMP was set to promote the 2 Kia Florida dealerships and 4 different West Virginia shops to Atlantic Coast Automotive Group. Nonetheless, in October, LMP stated that deal had been terminated by the client.

“We had been glad to have the ability to have one other alternative to accumulate these two dealerships,” Morgan stated of the Kia shops. “We love Kia and love these two markets.”

The acquisition provides to Morgan Automotive’s footprint in Southwest Florida. “It is a rising market in Florida,” Brett Morgan stated.

The Kia dealership acquisitions are the most recent buy by Morgan Automotive in a busy 12 months.

Final month, the group purchased Tallahassee Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram, which additionally bought Fiat autos. Brett Morgan stated it marks his group’s first retailer in Tallahassee, Florida’s capital.

Morgan Automotive purchased the shop on Nov. 11 from seller Ken Marks, Brett Morgan stated. The dealership was renamed Tallahassee Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram-Fiat.

The Tallahassee acquisition was the primary since August when Morgan Automotive purchased three dealerships in Sarasota, Fla. In June, Morgan Automotive purchased Ford of Clermont and bought its Genesis of Fort Myers dealership, each in Florida. In Could, Morgan Automotive purchased Fuccillo Kia of Clermont, plus two domestic-branded dealerships in Tampa.

Morgan Automotive doesn’t have another acquisitions underneath contract, although Brett Morgan indicated he expects his group will likely be within the hunt for extra in 2023.

“We’re nonetheless a really acquisitive firm,” he stated. “The truth is it will in all probability look so much like this 12 months and the 12 months prior. However powerful to play crystal ball. If the best alternatives are on the market, we’ll do as a lot as we have now the capability to accumulate.”

Brett Morgan stated the group stays bullish on Florida, the one state it has dealerships in.

“We’re not wanting anyplace else,” Brett Morgan stated of different states. “However we’re open-minded people.”

Morgan Automotive now has 61 franchised dealerships. The group wound down operations of a used-vehicle retailer in Lake Metropolis, Fla., this month, Brett Morgan added.

Morgan Automotive ranks No. 8 on Automotive Information‘ record of the highest 150 dealership teams based mostly within the U.S., retailing 60,951 new autos in 2021.

LMP updates

In its Monday press launch, LMP stated it in December signed definitive agreements to promote a Subaru retailer and a Kia retailer in Mount Hope, W.Va.

LMP didn’t point out if the shops are being bought collectively or individually and didn’t identify a purchaser or consumers. LMP did, nonetheless, observe that the agreements are anticipated to shut in March 2023.

The auto retailer stated it’s advertising and marketing its two remaining dealerships, a Chevrolet dealership in Oak Hill, W.Va., and a Buick-GMC retailer in Beckley, W.Va.

The corporate in a November press launch stated it had closed on the sale of Bachman-Bernard Chevrolet-Buick-GMC-Cadillac in Greeneville, Tenn. LMP didn’t point out when the transaction closed or who the client was of that retailer.

LMP executives didn’t reply to questions on that transaction.

In October, LMP bought its White Plains Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealership in White Plains, N.Y., to Tasca Automotive Group.

LMP, in its most up-to-date launch in December, additionally stated it’s transferring ahead with its liquidation plan and plans to make “a partial distribution to the shareholders of file starting in January 2023.”

“The board and the administration staff all consider that, given the diversified nature of our portfolio, pursuing a number of transactions with totally different potential consumers for belongings or teams of belongings presents the perfect alternative to maximise stockholder worth in addition to to maximise the web proceeds to be distributed to shareholders,” LMP CEO Samer Tawfik stated in a Dec. 19 assertion.