LMP closer to dissolution with pending sale of 6 dealerships

Just 17 months after LMP Automotive Holdings Inc. bought its first franchised dealerships — and with public goals to grow to 80 to 100 stores by the end of 2022 — the small public auto retailer appears headed for dissolution, as it has agreed to sell six dealerships to Atlantic Coast Automotive Group.

LMP, in a regulatory filing Wednesday, said it entered into asset purchase agreements with Atlantic Coast Automotive on Aug. 5 for its Florida Kia dealerships in Port Charlotte and Cape Coral, plus Kia and Subaru stores in Mount Hope, W.Va., a Chevrolet dealership in Oak Hill, W.Va., and a Buick-GMC store in Beckley, W.Va.

LMP said it anticipates cash proceeds of $133 million from the deal, which is slated to close by Oct. 31, according to the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

LMP's move to sell the six dealerships (a seventh dealership also is under a sales contract) and pursue a liquidation plan follows a tumultuous several months for the company.

In February, LMP revealed plans to terminate seven pending purchases of numerous dealerships and said it was exploring strategic alternatives for its business, including a possible sale of the company.

The company also faces a possible class-action lawsuit and has filed lawsuits seeking the return of deposits it made for dealership acquisitions it terminated.

By July, LMP said it had hired BofA Securities to help it seek strategic options for its auto retail business, the same month it announced it had terminated CFO Robert Bellaflores.

"It didn't work out," Sheldon Sandler, CEO of Bel Air Partners, a buy-sell advisory firm in Hopewell, N.J., said of LMP. "They didn't have the capital to get through it all."

Sandler, a former SEC chief examiner who helped guide heavy-truck dealer Rush Enterprises to an initial public offering in the mid-1990s, succinctly summed up LMP's rise and fall: "Early stage, big ideas and bang — never raised enough capital."

The $133 million in proceeds for the six dealerships slated to be sold to Atlantic Coast Automotive is just slightly more than what LMP paid for them in 2021.

LMP spent $127.4 million on those six franchised stores, plus three used-vehicle stores in West Virginia, according to the auto retailer's third-quarter 2021 regulatory filing. The used-vehicle stores do not appear to be part of the Atlantic transaction.

Last month, LMP said it signed an agreement to sell its Stellantis store in White Plains, N.Y., which it expects will generate $15.8 million. That transaction also is expected to close in October.

LMP has not reported a sales agreement for the one remaining franchised dealership in its portfolio, a Chevrolet-Buick-GMC-Cadillac store in Greeneville, Tenn., or any of its used-vehicle stores.

LMP representatives did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

While disclosing the sales details, LMP in the regulatory filing this week said CEO Samer Tawfik, who also took on the interim CFO title after LMP fired Bellaflores, would see his annual base salary increase by $360,000 to $660,000.

LMP also said its board approved a modification to COO Richard Aldahan's compensation. In addition to his base salary of $300,000, Aldahan is now eligible to receive a one-time bonus of $400,000 if several targets, including "the consummation of the sales of each of the company's dealerships," are met.

This week, the retailer said its board recommended that company stockholders "vote to approve a proposed plan of liquidation of LMP's assets and the dissolution of the company" at its next special meeting of stockholders. In this week's regulatory filing, LMP said the date and time of the special meeting "will be announced at a later date."

"We believe that the plan of liquidation will maximize stockholder value as we continue to sell our remaining assets," Tawfik said in a statement Monday. "Management believes that upon finalization of the plan of liquidation we expect that the company will be able to distribute approximately $115 million to $126 million to shareholders."

Based on 10.9 million shares outstanding, that would indicate shareholders would receive $10.55 to $11.56 per share. As of May, Tawfik held a third of the company's stock.

LMP had a market cap of $84.8 million as of market close Thursday. The auto retailer's stock had traded higher than $20 a share last year. It closed Thursday at $7.77.

LMP hasn't reported financial results for the fourth quarter of 2021 or the first or second quarters of this year and has said it will restate financial results for the first three quarters of 2021.

The pending deal follows another six-store purchase by Atlantic Coast Automotive. In May, the group, of Miami Lakes, Fla., bought six dealerships in upstate New York from Nye Automotive Group. Atlantic Coast Automotive also has dealerships in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Florida.

"We look forward to welcoming the employees of LMP into our automotive family," Ali Ahmed, of Atlantic Coast Automotive, wrote in an email to Automotive News.