CATS sells majority of business to Inchcape

CATS – the parent company of Harley-Davidson of Manila – has entered into a joint-venture agreement with a British company, Inchcape. The deal involves CATS selling 60% of its stake to the Brits.

“We are very pleased to be entering the Philippines, a country with a large and fast-growing economy, where CATS is the leading distributor of luxury vehicles,” said Russel Kinebas, Inchcape APAC CEO. “The Ang family has built long-standing successful relationships with its OEM brand partners and its customers. We are looking forward to building on their achievements and accelerating the company’s digitalization journey, driving the business to further success.”

CATS Group of Companies is one of the leading distributors of luxury automobile brands here in the country, particularly, Mercedes Benz, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, RAM, Harley-Davidson of Manila and more recently Jaguar and Land Rover.

Inchcape, on the other hand, is a British public limited company (PLC) that is engaged in automobile distribution, retail, and service in various markets all around Europe, South America, Asia, Australia, and Africa. Some of the brands that Inchcape has worked with throughout the decades include Toyota, Lexus, Mazda, Chevrolet, Subaru, Citroen, Volkswagen, Kia, Volvo, Geely, Isuzu, Ford, Hyundai, and many, many more.

“This acquisition is a significant milestone for Inchcape in APAC and an excellent example of our Accelerate strategy in action; extending our global distribution leadership by expanding our OEM brand footprint in markets where vehicle penetration is low but expected to grow quickly,” continued Kinebas. “The combination of Inchcape’s leading global position and digital and data capabilities means we are well placed to successfully execute our strategy to accelerate growth both organically and via industry consolidation.”

Inchcape says that they expect CATS to add about GBP 120 million (about PHP 8 billion) in annual revenue to the company. They also said that the transaction will be completed by about the second half of this year.

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