Keating Auto adds 4 dealerships in Texas

Growing Keating Auto Group acquired four dealerships over the past week and a half as it continues to expand its Texas-only footprint.

Keating Auto, of Victoria, Texas, on Nov. 29 bought Tom Light Chevrolet in Bryan, Texas, from brothers Tim Light and Tom Light, said Ben Keating, the dealership group's owner.

Terms were not disclosed, but the dealership was renamed Aggieland Chevrolet. Bryan is near College Station, home to the Texas A&M University Aggies.

On Monday, Keating Auto bought Automax Ford, Automax Volkswagen and Automax Hyundai-Genesis, all in Killeen, from husband and wife Bradley Whitis and A.G. Whitis.

The stores have been renamed Killeen Ford, Killeen Volkswagen and Killeen Hyundai-Genesis. Killeen, which is north of Austin, is near the U.S. Army base Fort Hood.

The acquisition marks a return to the Volkswagen brand for the Keating group, Keating noted.

Bill Scrivner and Mike Sims of Pinnacle Mergers and Acquisitions, a Frisco, Texas, buy-sell firm, represented the sellers in the Automax transaction.

Keating Auto, which bought three dealerships in the Houston market last month, now has 27 rooftops.

"I only want to be in Texas because it's such a great car market and [there's] no reason to expand outside of Texas," Keating told Automotive News. "We bought seven stores in the last two months and I've been working on all of these for a long period of time. Just like it has been for so many other sellers and buyers in the market, everything seems to be right to close at the end of the year here.

"I'm very bullish on the future of the car world, the retail automotive world. There's no place I'd rather invest my money. So that's what we're doing. I'm really excited about these opportunities. These are large stores. We will be adding somewhere around 25 to 30 percent to our overall volume."

Keating said he expects that his group will likely acquire one dealership and sell one store in 2022.

"We have a big bunch of facility work to do," Keating said. "We will be building four brand-new Hyundai facilities, one new Genesis facility [and] doing lots of remodels. We've got a lot of work to fully digest what we have taken on in 2020 and 2021."

Keating Auto ranks No. 39 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 21,480 new vehicles in 2020.