42.34%

MILLIE TURNER MARSHALL Motor shares surged more than 42 per cent yesterday after receiving a takeover bid from its largest shareholder.

The offer of 400p per share - or around £201m - comes from Constellation Automotive which already owns a 64.4 per cent stake in the London-listed car retailer.

Constellation, which also owns Cinch and Webuyanycar, now has 28 days to make a concrete offer.

Despite battling vehicle supply uncertainty, Marshall Motor anticipates an underlying profit before tax of no less than £50m for 2021.

The bid follows Constellation snapping up European digital car marketplace Carnext in October, which has a gross merchandise value of some £17.7bn.

"The used-car market is one of the last bastions of the retail market not to be digitized. Like the travel, electronics or apparel market before it, this is just a matter of time," said Thibaut Large of Constellation's majority shareholder TDR Capital, last month.

(c) 2021 City A.M., source Newspaper