The automotive retail sector is currently experiencing a period of strong evolution, enforced by the innovations that change the paradigm of car distribution and marketing (digital transformation, autonomous driving, electrification). To maintain competitive advantages and keep growing, in 2017 the Gino Group management has launched a strategic plan with setting the objective to grow both geographically and in size.

Nash Advisory, acting as sole M&A advisor of the Gino Group, supported the company’s management in the scouting activities, the structuring of the transactions, and supporting the negotiation until the closing of two M&A operations and with the startup phase of a new dealership opening.

Analysis of the competitive positioning in terms of financial performance and comparison with other leading players in the field.

Benchmarking with leading competitors to assess their financial and equity performance is important. In the automotive retail sector it is even more essential, since territorial competition between players is, in some cases, very strong. Nash Advisory carried out a benchmarking analysis between the Gino Group and five other players in the sector, singled out among the best dealers in Italy for performance and size. The analysis allowed to highlight interesting conclusions about the client’s strengths and improvement areas, also identifying the corrective actions to be implemented.

Analysis of the net financial position of the Group and the related financial costs, aiming to identify potential actions to be taken to improve the debt position.

In the last years, the low spreads offered by the banks attracted many companies persuading them to open new current accounts and activate new lines of financing; nevertheless behind interesting commercial offers, exorbitant commissions can be hidden. In this study, Nash Advisory managed to identify several improvement actions concerning banks relations management, detecting potential savings for the customer coming from a rationalization of the overall debt exposure.

Analysis of specific cost items in the Consolidated Income Statement, aimed at identifying possible savings and improvement areas for supporting the increase of margins.

In this case, Nash Advisory independently analyzed the historical and prospective trend of some specific cost items, using innovative financial techniques, in order to identify the areas of improvement and intervention to increase the overall margin of the customer. Sometimes, an independent opinion, external to the company dynamics, can lead to interesting discoveries.