24 January 2019

UPDATE: Swedish investment company Anders Hedin Invest, which owns several dealer groups on the Continent, and which last week bought a 9.24% share in Pendragon has now increased this to more than 11%.

The owner of the investment firm Mr Anders Hedin also personally bought 1.6 million shares, taking his interest in Pendragon, including that of his investment firm, to 11.36%. This share makes Anders Hedin the second largest shareholder of Pendragon.

The move comes a week after European investment firm Teleios Capital Partners took its share in the UK’s second largest UK retailer to more than 21% from 17%. Teleios is Pendragon’s largest shareholder. The third largest shareholder is now asset management firm Odey with just more than 11%.

The latest moves by the two investment firms have led to speculation that a play for ownership of Pendragon may be under way following the announcement last month that CEO Trevor Finn is going to retire (pictured) at the end of March 2019. When asked, by Auto Retail Agenda, if Anders Hedin Invest was planning to takeover or purchase Pendragon a spokesman for the firm declined to comment.

Anders Hedin Invest is 100% privately owned and has investments of more than £2bn. In its most recent corporate report for 2018 the firm states it has 100 automotive dealerships across Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland and has 3,300 employees.

Pendragon’s share price rose from around 22.5p to 25.0p on news of the move, but at time of publication, had since fallen back to 23.6p a share.

Pendragon has had a turbulent 18 months with a series of profit warnings and the announcement that it intends to sell off both its US division and scale back its premium brand locations. The UK group has also stated that it will put more focus on used car retailing in future, however profitability has been falling.