Lithia Motors Inc. has purchased another six dealerships — the remaining Houston area stores in the John Eagle Dealerships portfolio.
The move helps the nation’s third-largest new-vehicle retailer grow its import brand presence in Texas.
Lithia said Tuesday that the stores — two Infiniti, three Honda and one Acura outlet — would generate $600 million in annual revenue.
Last month, Lithia bought four John Eagle Dealerships in the Dallas and Austin, Texas, markets and said the combined 10 Texas dealerships would add $1.1 billion in annual revenue to the company.
“The John Eagle acquisitions improve Lithia’s density in the South-Central region and expands our network with a dominant presence in four of the top five largest metropolitan markets in the United States,” Lithia CEO Bryan DeBoer said in a statement.
Lithia did not disclose the purchase price for the latest deal but said it paid for the stores using free cash flow and existing balance sheet funds.
The stores purchased in the latest deal include Clear Lake Infiniti in Houston; Honda of Clear Lake in League City; John Eagle Acura in Houston; John Eagle Honda Houston; Honda Cars of Katy; and Southwest Infiniti in Houston.
It earlier purchased John Eagle Honda of Dallas; Honda Cars of Rockwall; Howdy Honda in Austin; and Sport City Toyota in Dallas.
Lithia has purchased at least 16 dealerships this year that it says will boost annual revenue by more than $1.6 billion combined.
The company has said dealership growth is key in its ambitious goal to nearly quadruple annual revenue to $50 billion in five years.
The Presidio Group represented John Eagle Dealerships in the transaction. That group’s website lists one remaining store, a Honda dealership in San Antonio. John Eagle also recently sold an Aston Martin dealership in Dallas to another dealership group.
Lithia Motors Inc., of Medford, Ore., ranks No. 3 on Automotive News‘ list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 180,582 new vehicles in 2019.