‘Great assets’: Nick Politis pays $50m for Porsche dealerships

Penske acquired the Porsche dealerships businesses (and a Ducati motorcycle dealership in Melbourne it has since sold) in April from the Auswild family’s Preston Motor Group – one of the country’s oldest car dealership businesses.

“I know the owners of [these businesses] and have a good relationship with them,” Mr Politis told The Australian Financial Review.

Asked if he was in the market for further car dealership acquisitions, Mr Politis, who owns more than 28 per cent of ASX-listed car sales giant Eagers Automotive and is worth $2.36 billion according to the 2024 Financial Review Rich List, answered “No”.

Mr Politis founded WFM Motors in the 1970s, which he grew into one of the country’s largest Ford dealerships. He acquired a substantial interest in Eagers Automotive in 2000. He has been chairman of NRL side the Sydney Roosters since 1993.

Last year, he pocketed $245 million after selling a number of car dealerships he owned in Victoria to Eagers Automotive.

The two freehold sites were offered to the market by PM Group following the sale of the associated dealership businesses to Penske.

“Both Brighton and Doncaster are truly exceptional properties,” said James Bergmuller, chair of PM Group and the grandson of Sir James Auswild. “However, we are not in the property investment business, we are in the automotive business, and since our interest in the dealerships have been divested, the property has become non-core.”

Porsche Centre Brighton is located in the Melbourne bayside suburb’s “Golden Mile of Cars” at 855-859 Nepean Highway and stands on a 4049 square metre landholding. Porsche Centre Doncaster occupies a 1674 square metre site at 839 Doncaster Road.

Penske Automotive, which generates about US$30 billion ($44 billion) in revenue a year from new and used car sales, said the Melbourne Porsche dealerships would contribute about US$130 million in annual revenue.

JLL’s Stuart Taylor, Tom Noonan, Jarrod Herscu and MingXuan Li handled the sale of the Porsche dealerships on behalf of PM Group, but declined to comment on the specifics of the deal.

Speaking about the commercial property market generally, Mr Taylor said there was currently a “strange dynamic of very low supply of prime assets to the market, whilst having enormous private capital capacity waiting on the sidelines”.

“The supply story is primarily driven by lack of vendor confidence. However, those assets which do come to market are receiving heightened inquiry and participation rates,” Mr Taylor said.

Advise Transact’s Mark Wizel acted as transaction manager. He said the sales of these two dealerships demonstrated that buyers were willing to spend their capital for the right opportunities despite “widespread negativity” around falling commercial property values.