We tracked 2021's dealership acquisition frenzy. Here are the numbers

Dealership consolidator Gregg Ciocca, who wants to double his store count to 50 within five years, says acquisition opportunities are "coming fast and furious" in today's robust buy-sell market.

Ciocca, CEO of Ciocca Dealerships in Quakertown, Pa., which last year acquired the country's highest-volume Chevrolet Corvette dealership, has signed multiple dealership purchase agreements that he expects will close this year.

"With everything that we have under agreement, we are moving closer and closer to that 50 mark far sooner than I ever thought because of all the activity out there and low interest rates and good profits," Ciocca said. "And people, they think the timing is right" to exit.

With two dealership purchases last year, Ciocca contributed to 2021's slew of buy-sell activity, which was rigorously documented by Automotive News for the first time. Automotive News tracked 382 buy-sell transactions in 2021 that involved 707 dealerships trading hands

The purchases are part of a new era of consolidation reshaping the retail industry. The country's biggest groups own more of the industry's dealerships and command a growing share of U.S. new-vehicle sales. Several megadeals, accompanied by a flood of smaller acquisitions, made 2021 the biggest year for dealership acquisitions arguably in history. And the big-deal era may just be getting started as many retailers decide whether to get bigger — or sell out.

"We'll see ongoing consolidation, maybe not at the record pace we saw in 2021," said Alan Haig, president of Haig Partners, a buy-sell firm in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Haig said his company was involved in the sale of a record 50 dealerships last year.

There are no comparable year-earlier figures for the 707 dealerships sold in 382 confirmed transactions in 2021 since Automotive News wasn't tracking industry deals as thoroughly in 2020.

But Haig Partners concluded that a record number of stores — 640 — sold in 2021, eclipsing its previous high count of 463 in 2015 when Berkshire Hathaway bought the massive Van Tuyl Group. The firm's 2021 figure about doubled the number of stores sold in an average year, Haig said.

While deal pace was high all year, it exploded in the fourth quarter when Automotive News counted 153 deals involving the sale of 327 dealerships. Those included several megadeals such as December's blockbuster sale of Larry H. Miller Dealerships, then the country's No. 8 new-vehicle retailer, to Asbury Automotive Group Inc.

That fourth-quarter surge was driven by a few circumstances, buy-sell experts say. Many dealers like to close transactions by year's end for tax purposes, they said, and for much of 2021, dealers figured they may be subject to a huge increase in capital gains taxes in 2022, though that didn't materialize.

Whether those megadeals that clearly pushed 2021's numbers will continue is up in the air.

Haig said he's not sure such supersized deals will materialize in 2022, but he expects plenty of small and medium transactions.

Andy Church, president of Dealer Solutions Mergers and Acquisitions in Stuart, Fla., however, said he expects megadeals will continue this year and will contribute to changes in the rankings on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S. The most recent version of that list based on 2021 new-vehicle sales saw plenty of shakeup because of consolidation, and the effects of deal-making both last year and in 2022 will contribute to more changes in volume and, likely, rankings on the list.

Erin Kerrigan, managing director of Kerrigan Advisors, a sell-side firm in Incline Village, Nev., observed a significant uptick of transactions involving multiple dealerships in 2021.

Kerrigan Advisors' 2021 annual Blue Sky Report said 126 such transactions occurred last year, up from 73 in 2020 and 60 in 2019. In all, Kerrigan counted 383 transactions in 2021, up 33 percent and smashing what her firm said was the previous high set in 2020.

"Many, many dealers now are interested in not just acquiring one dealership but making more aggressive moves and buying an entire group," Kerrigan told Automotive News.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Kerrigan said most buyers, outside of the publics and the largest privately held dealership groups, were hesitant "to do a major transaction."

"Whereas today, we find that many private groups are seeking transformative acquisitions because they believe scale is the biggest determiner of their future success," she said.

Public dealership groups acquired a combined 222 U.S. dealerships in 2021, according to Automotive News.

Gregg Ciocca, CEO of Ciocca Dealerships in Quakertown, Pa., says many dealers “think the timing is right” to exit.

Of all 2021 transactions tracked by Automotive News, 42, or 11 percent, involved one of the six major public groups or publicly traded LMP Automotive Holdings as buyers.

Haig used regulatory filings to estimate that the six major public groups spent nearly $9.1 billion combined on acquisitions last year, led by Asbury and Lithia.

Kerrigan Advisors estimated the six major publics spent a record $9.56 billion on acquisitions in 2021, significantly up from its $2.48 billion estimate for 2020 when only Lithia and Asbury made acquisitions.