Crichton circles UK

MULTI-MILLIONAIRE Kiwi automotive baron Neville Crichton appears poised to make a takeover bid for two of the UK’s most historic and respected names in luxury car retailing, HR Owen and Jack Barclay.

Balverona, the Crichton-owned holding company that owns Ateco Automotive and European Automotive imports - which between them imports and distributes Alfa Romeo, Citroen, Fiat, Ferrari and Maserati vehicles in Australia and New Zealand – increased its stake in the British car retailer HR Owen, which is valued at $US63 million, to 27.08 per cent on February 21.

Mr Crichton has been a shareholder in HR Owen, whose Bentley franchise the famed Jack Barclay retail chain, for a number of years, but his increased stake takes him 35,000 shares closer to the 30 per cent threshold at which Balverona would have to make a takeover offer.

“As far as I'm concerned it’s a company with extremely good brands and it certainly interests me, and it comes under the umbrella of what we do in Australia,” Mr Crichton told Reuters last week.

“I'm not making a takeover bid at this point, but it's certainly worth a premium because the agencies the company has and the reputation Jack Barclay has is like the Harrods of the car business in the UK,” he said, adding that consolidation among UK car dealers was inevitable.

“Clearly there are other public companies in a bit of difficulty there. We're only interested in the top-end. We’re not interested in the volume business,” he said.