Autosports snares Motorline dealerships, body shops

The Motorline BMW Daisy Hill dealership, prior to a renovation.

The 16 year old Autosports Group has purchased three more Queensland car dealerships and two panel repair shops for a combined $60 million.

The deal for the Motorline business – which trades BMWs and Minis – includes real estate and gives the buyer a presence in Brisbane’s Logan City growth corridor and on the Gold Coast, at Southport.

Autosports last month paid Dexus, the landlord, $98 million for adjoining Fortitude Valley dealerships.

Settlement is scheduled late next month.

The deal comes five weeks since Autosports paid Dexus $98m for adjoining car yards it rented, to sell Audi and Maserati, in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley.

Six months ago the dealer outlaid c$66.1m for the Auckland City BMW business – responsible for 37 per cent of that country’s BMW sales, 50pc of its Minis and all its Rolls Royces.

Car sales humming

Across its 55 dealerships – Autosports can also sell Aston Martin, Bentley, Ducati, Jaguar, Kia, Lamborghini, Land Rover, McLaren, Subaru, Volkswagen and Volvo cars.

It will fund the Motorline deal through reserves and borrowing.

The body shops are attached to the dealerships – Motorline BMW and Mini, at Daisy Hill, in the Logan City municipality, and Gold Coast BMW – about four kilometres north of Surfers Paradise.

Motorline is also a finance and insurance broker; its net profit for FY22 was $92.8m – up 23pc for the year (story continues below).

Gold Coast BMW at the Southport/Ashmore suburb border.

“The transaction aligns with our strategy of representing luxury brands in key metropolitan markets,” Autosports’ chief executive officer, Nick Pagent, said.

“Having only recently expanded our partnership with BMW Group in New Zealand with our acquisition of Auckland City BMW, securing the Motorline and Gold Coast BMW/Mini dealerships scales up our representation,” he added.

“The [Logan City BMW] dealership is undergoing a facility upgrade to bring it inline with the latest BMW corporate identity, similar to Autosport Group’s recent Melbourne BMW Kings Way upgrade,” according to Mr Pagent.

“The Gold Coast BMW dealership represents the BMW brand on the Gold Coast and Northern NSW region,” he added.

“The Motorline Bodyshop also provides an additional complementary revenue stream to the core South Brisbane and Gold Coast dealerships,” the executive said.

Eastcoast Automotive, Eastcoast Asset Services, Service Master (Aust) Pty Ltd and Motorline Bodyshop offloaded the Motorline business.

Daisy Hill is 23 kms from Brisbane.

Motorline acquired the Gold Coast business six years ago from the Lynton family, which established it in 1974.

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Marc Pallisco

A former property analyst and print journalist, Marc is the publisher of realestatesource.com.au.