September 4, 2015 — We’re putting the finishing touches on the July and August dealership buy-sell updates. It has been a vibrant and active summer, and as we enter the fall months, several large deals are rumored to be nearing the finish line, including the AMSI’s pending acquisition of 11 stores of the Sam Swope Automotive Group in Louisville, KY.

The deal is slated to close in the next two to three months and does not include Toyota of Louisville, Richmond Honda or the dealerships part of the Swope Family of Dealerships (which is separate from the Sam Swope Group).

AMSI (Automotive Management Services Inc. is based in West Palm Beach, FL. The group owns approximately 100 dealerships in Florida, New York, Tennessee and Georgia.

Meanwhile, another deal in the Southwest region of the country could also be announced in the next several weeks. The sweet spot over the last few months seems to be acquisitions that involve 15 to 20 dealerships.

With four months left in the year, the industry has already seen more than 280 rooftops change hands — which is far ahead of the pace in 2014 which finished with just over 350 dealerships sold.

One deal we have been writing about since March finally was completed as a group led by Josh Aaronson, Marcello Sciarrino, Ron Baron and David Baron closed on seven dealerships owned by the Manfredi Group in Staten Island, NY.

Other notable deals include Tom Durant buying the Red River Auto Group from Steve Starnes in Denison, TX. The deal involved Honda, Toyota and Nissan stores. Durant also acquired Jim Lawton Chevrolet in Oklahoma.

AutoNation, meanwhile, closed on 16 stores last month and has hinted that more deals could be forthcoming this year. Joe Serra also acquired two stores in Michigan while Todd Blue acquired another Porsche franchise in St. Louis.

One other interesting deal includes Mariano Rivera, former New York Yankee all time great pitcher, partnering with Ken Hicks to buy the Toyota North dealership in Mt. Kisco, NY from Ron Napoli Sr.

Also in July, sources tell us that Brad Benson Hyundai was sold to a group known as DCN Automotive (we’ll have more on this deal in our update next week).