BCA Marketplace unrepentant as suitor Apax walks away

BCA Marketplace revealed on Friday that private equity group Apax had walked away after the car auction house and operator of WeBuyAnyCar.com rejected two takeover proposals.

Directors said they had unanimously rejected both "preliminary and conditional indicative proposals" after careful consideration on the conclusion that they undervalued the company and its "attractive prospects".

Rival private equity house Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, which previously owned BCA until its flotation in April 2015, has also been reported to be considering a bid.

Late last month BCA reported it was trading well, with operating profit for the year to 1 April up 18% to £87.6m as revenue rose 19.8% to £2.4bn.

BCA’s biggest business is car auctions and sales. It also checks and stores vehicles, manages customs and provides other services along the motor industry’s supply chain. Revenue increased across all its divisions last year with big increases from selling vehicles.

The UK vehicle remarketing division, BCA’s main auction business, sold more than 1m vehicles for the first time and increased operating profit to £67.1m. Vehicle buying, which includes WeBuyAnyCar, sold 219,000 cars – up 12.9% – and increased operating profit by 30.3%.