Car dealer giant Pendragon on Monday confirmed that it had approached rival Lookers about a tie-up, but said talks had fallen flat.
Pendragon, the owner of dealers such as Evans Halshaw and Stratstone, said it thought discussing the merits of a combination would “have proved beneficial”.
Collectively the pair would have had annual sales of nearly £10 billion.
A deal might have given the companies room for cost savings amid tough market conditions, as forecourt closures and weak consumer confidence hit trading.
Lookers’ decision not to engage was due to its board’s existing workload, Sky News reported. Lookers warned in March it had identified potentially fraudulent transactions in one of its divisions.
Shares in Pendragon slipped 0.4p, or 4.89%, to7.78p. Shares in Lookers edged up 0.3p, or 1.26%, to 24.05p.
Pendragon said it “remains well-positioned having already taken significant steps to reshape the business and to cut costs both in advance, and as a result, of the recent events which have temporarily curtailed business activity”.
Elsewhere today, car dealer Inchcape named Duncan Tait as its next chief executive, to take over from Stefan Bomhard who is joining Imperial Brands. Tait was most recently on the board of directors at tech giant Fujitsu.
