Car dealer group Lookers – which holds franchises for Nissan sites – yesterday rejected a speculative offer for the company which saw its share price rocket.
Shares in the company leapt 6p to 61.25p – adding more than £23m to its market value of £210.2m – as talk of the approach reached investors.
The London Evening Standard reported that there were two private-equity firms interested, one of which could be Apax, as well as rival dealer Inchcape.
Interest has been spiked as many think the car industry is on its way to recovery with next year earmarked as a good one for the trade.
In a statement Lookers said it had rejected the offer, but despite this the proposal constituted an approach for the purposes of the takeover code and therefore placed the company in an ‘offer period’. The firm added a further statement would be made when it could.
Lookers reported in March that its profits had tripled to £31m, with revenue increasing by 7.7 per cent to £1.9bn.