Inchcape was operating at a hefty pre-tax loss before offloading its UK car dealers to Group 1 Automotive last year, new documents have revealed.

The firm has today (Mar 4) published its annual accounts for the 12 months ending December 31, which show that the outfit made a healthy pre-tax profit of £414m throughout 2024 as a whole.

However, buried deep in the accounts are the figures up until July 31, when the £346m Group 1 deal was finalised after months of negotiations.

Numbers published on page 29 of 34 show that in the first seven months of the year, Inchcape made a loss-before-tax of £3m.

The figure represents a complete collapse compared to the same period in 2023, when the group made a pre-tax profit of £35m.

Meanwhile, the group’s revenue tumbled from £2.06bn to £1.19bn prior to the sale to Group 1 Automotive.

The accounts say that Inchcape profited to the tune of £150m by disposing of the operations, some of which have since been axed after the US takeover.

Overall, the deal resulted in a ‘net cash inflow’ of £372m for Inchcape.

Elsewhere, despite the pre-tax profit of more than £400m, Inchcape saw its revenues and margins fall in the whole year of 2024.

Revenue dipped by 1% to £9.26bn while adjusted operating margin fell from 6.6% in 2023 to 6.3% in 2024.

Reacting to the results, Inchcape CEO Duncan Tait said: ‘Inchcape delivered continued strategic, operational and financial progress in FY 2024, reflecting our diversified and scaled global market leadership position, our long-standing and valuable OEM relationships and our differentiated technology capabilities.’

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