Georgica Auto Holdings welcomes Franchise Equity Partners as minority shareholder
Georgica Auto Holdings, an automotive retail group with 23 franchises in the northeast, welcomed Franchise Equity Partners (FEP) as a minority shareholder following a $70 million capital investment. Georgica Auto Holdings is led by its CEO, Jon Sobel, an entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in the automotive retail industry. Georgica's dealers account for over 20,000 new and used vehicle sales annually, totaling more than $1 billion in revenue.
"Bringing Franchise Equity Partners in as a minority shareholder positions us to rapidly and thoughtfully grow our business, whilst retaining my Land Rover store in Manhattan and much of the real estate, outside of this partnership." said Jon Sobel, CEO of Georgica Auto Holdings. "I've known FEP's co-founders, Scott Romanoff and Mike Esposito, for more than 25 years and their unique model gives us the best of all worlds—access to passive, permanent capital and deep automotive and financial expertise while letting us retain our flexibility and autonomy as an independent business."
Celebrating its first year in operation, Franchise Equity Partners, an independently operated portfolio company of certain funds and accounts managed by HPS Investment Partners, supplies large scale, best-in-class franchise owners with access to levels of capital and in-house financial expertise that are customarily reserved for public companies, while allowing these businesses to retain full control of their operations.
"It's a thrill to join forces with Georgica Auto Holdings as we celebrate our first year in business," said Don Reese, CEO and President of FEP Auto Holdings. "We believe that Jon Sobel is an ideal partner as we expand our investments in the northeast, and we look forward to helping Georgica Auto Holdings unlock its full growth potential."
"This is an exciting time of significant change for the automotive retail industry as the dealer model continues to evolve and consumer demand for electric vehicles accelerates," said Mark LaNeve, Chairman of FEP Auto Holdings, "we believe scale will be critical and see tremendous opportunity with this investment in Georgica Auto Holdings as well as future investments to help dealers achieve growth and scale their footprint and operations"
Franchise Equity Partners' differentiated approach allows them to present a unique offering to prospective, growth-oriented partners in the automotive retail industry: extensive corporate finance experience combined with passive, permanent capital, and deep auto-sector leadership expertise. FEP Auto Holdings Chairman Mark LaNeve calls upon decades of automaker C-suite experience in North America, while FEP Auto Holdings President Don Reese brings an equally deep background in dealer management, operations and financing.
Laurence M. Smith of Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi PC represented Georgica Auto Holdings and Stephen J. Dietrich of Holland & Knight represented Franchise Equity Partners in the transaction.
About Franchise Equity Partners
Franchise Equity Partners is a private investment firm specializing in providing capital to franchise businesses and their owners. Its differentiated approach combines extensive corporate finance and operating experience with passive, permanent capital to enable growth, ownership simplification, succession and estate planning, among other strategic business opportunities. FEP invests across five industry verticals: automotive dealers, restaurants, beverage distribution, heavy equipment dealers and other consumer and business services. FEP has an initial target portfolio size of $1 billion and is an independently operated portfolio company of certain funds and accounts managed by HPS Investment Partners, a leading global-alternative investment firm, with over $92 billion of assets under management.
To learn more about Franchise Equity Partners, please visit https://www.fep-us.com or follow the firm on LinkedIn.
About Georgica Auto Holdings
Georgica Auto Holdings operates 23 automotive retail franchises across New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. With dealerships representing an iconic roster of mass-market and luxury automotive brands, Georgica Automotive Holdings generates over $1 billion in annual sales from over 20,000 new- and used-vehicle transactions. Dealerships representing a constellation of brands from the Volkswagen Group, Porsche Cars North America, General Motors, BMW Group, Jaguar Land Rover, Stellantis, Toyota USA, American Honda, and Subaru of America.
To learn more about Georgica Auto Holdings, please visit www.georgicaautoholdings.com.
