Kwik-Fit, BCA, the AA and RAC... scarcely a month passes without some automotive-related company passing into new ownership. Investor Warren Buffet has disparagingly referred to it as 'deal flipping' in a global casino. It was a fairly innocuous news item, from the business pages at the beginning of March. Kwik-Fit - Europe's largest fast-fit chain - had been sold by French-based private equity group PAI Partners to the mighty Japanese Itochu Corporation for ￡637m. This followed the earlier sale in mid-2010 of Kwik-Fit's insurance operation to the insurance group Aegeas (formerly Fortis), for which PAI received ￡215m, making ￡852m in total.
展开▼
