Trends in the automotive sector include lengthening service intervals, shortening model life cycles, stagnating registrations and growth in more environmentally-friendly vehicles – all of which bring opportunities and threats to many privately owned businesses in the sector.

Over the years Oasis Europe has worked with a variety of business in the sector including:

• Dealerships, now impacted by block exemption changes and the industry consolidation
• Motor factors finding the importance of scale on buying power
• Component manufacturers, reconditioners and others

Additionally Oasis staff also has operational experience in the fields of precision engineering and motor racing.

Oasis Europe has been particularly active in this sector in recent years, acting for manufacturers & contractors alike*. Examples of our work in this sector include our representing the shareholders in the sale of Summer’s PVC, an exterior building products supply business to SIG plc, identifying the buyer and negotiating terms of the deal; Lanzet UK Ltd (a high-quality kitchen supplier to new-build housing) sold to Dean House plc; the sale of R R Richardson, a social housing contractor in their disposal to a private equity group.

Whilst the so-called demise of British industry might have affected this sector, we have worked with some interesting and successful niche engineering businesses. A number of transaction managers at Oasis trained as engineers and worked in industry. We can therefore relate to a certain caution surrounding professional advisors! A recent transaction in this sector - the recent acquisition of Cox Thermoforming by our client, Wokingham Plastics, provides an interesting example of our work. The owners and Oasis identified scale as a simple requirements for success in this capital-intensive industry. We initially began investigating sale and acquisition, and only decided on this route as the best option a significant way into the process.