Automotive Holdings Group's founding shareholders have sold a significant stake in the company to Brisbane-headquartered dealership group AP Eagers.
AHG's founders, the Wheatley Family, said they would offload a 16.33 per cent stake in the company to AP Eagers in a cash and share placement deal.
The deal is structured in two parts, with AP Eagers paying $41.1 million cash and issuing 10.19 million shares to the Wheatley Family.
AP Eagers will pay a further $47 million cash by July 2013.
The Wheatley Family becomes a 6.1 per cent stakeholder in AP Eagers, becoming that company's third largest shareholder.
Based on a consensus of analysts' profit forecasts, the deal was expected to be immediately earnings accretive, AP Eagers said.
AP Eagers chief executive Martin Ward said the shareholding in Automotive Holdings represented an investment in an industry segment the company understood and where it could add significant value for all shareholders.
"Whilst AHE (Automotive Holdings) is a diversified automotive retailing and logistics group, it has very important relationships with most of the nation's automotive companies within a franchise structure," Mr Ward said in a statement.