Asbury Automotive sells Chevy store, Escude Automotive buys two S.C. stores

A publicly held auto retailer sold a Chevrolet store this month, while a South Carolina group sold two dealerships back to the previous owner's son.

Here's a look at two transactions involving three domestic and import dealerships in Georgia and South Carolina. These deals involved auto retailers ranked on Automotive News' top 150 dealership groups list.

ALM Automotive Group bought Nalley Chevrolet in the Atlanta suburb of Union City, Ga., from public auto retailer Asbury Automotive Group Inc. The deal closed Aug. 5.

Asbury had $206.6 million worth of assets held for sale as of June 30, according to a regulatory filing. The group described the portfolio as eight franchised dealerships and a piece of unused real estate. It was unclear if Nalley Chevrolet is among the stores slated for divestment.

Asbury held $242.7 million in assets for sale as of the end of the first quarter, spanning 10 franchised dealerships and a piece of unused real estate.

In the second quarter, Asbury sold Larry H. Miller Nissan 104th in Denver and a store in Atlanta it identified to investors in a presentation as "Nalley Nissan," an apparent reference to Nalley Nissan of Cumming. Asbury reported a $3.6 million pretax gain from those transactions in the second quarter.

Asbury, of Duluth, Ga., ranks No. 5 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 149,509 new vehicles in 2023.

ALM Automotive, which has new- and used-car dealerships in Georgia and South Carolina, renamed the dealership ALM Chevrolet South.

Kerrigan Advisors, a dealership sell-side firm in Incline Village, Nev., represented Asbury in the transaction.

Escude Automotive Group, majority owned by Mark Escude II, on Aug. 12 bought Chevrolet of Easley and Fred Anderson Nissan of Greer from Anderson Automotive Group. Russell Antici, vice president of Escude Automotive, is a minority owner in the group. The two are first-time dealership owners.

The stores were two of the seven in the MCE Automotive group, owned by Escude's father, sold last August to Anderson Automotive.

"We decided to divest these two stores and direct our resources to other needs and opportunities," Fred Anderson, chairman of Anderson Automotive, said in a statement.

The Chevrolet store is in Easley, S.C., and the Nissan store is in Greer, about five miles from BMW's Spartanburg manufacturing plant.

The stores will be renamed Escude Chevrolet of Easley and Escude Nissan of Greer.

Escude lives in upstate South Carolina and said he jumped on the opportunity when he heard the stores were becoming available.

"I was very surprised when the opportunity presented itself, and the Andersons were great to work with," said Escude, who said he wants to buy more stores, with no geographic restriction.

Anderson Automotive, of Raleigh, N.C., ranks No. 44 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups, retailing 20,704 new vehicles in 2023.

Presidio Group, an investment banking and buy-sell advisory firm in Denver and Atlanta, advised Anderson Automotive on the sale.

— John Huetter contributed to this report.