When your industry's biggest threat is a wave of cheap, fast Chinese EVs, one way to dodge it is to sell cars no EV maker could ever build. That's effectively the bet Brisbane-based Eagers Automotive, Australia's largest car dealer, just made by agreeing to buy 50% of Zagame Automotive, the Melbourne dealership group that holds the keys to Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Lamborghini, McLaren, Aston Martin and Pagani in Melbourne, plus exclusive Adelaide rights to three of those brands too. Eagers has scale everywhere except luxury, and manufacturers like Ferrari rarely license new dealers no matter the cheque, so buying into someone who already holds those rights is the only realistic way in.
Zagame turned over about $600m in revenue last year on just 4,000 new car sales, and the deal, thought to be worth $100m-$150m, is expected to be immediately earnings accretive for Eagers. What's really being bought is insulation. Ultra-luxury buyers don't cross-shop with BYD, and Ferrari controls its own allocation regardless of what's happening to Audi, whose Australian sales fell 49.7% in August as Chinese luxury EV brand Zeekr posted a monthly sales record.
The catch is that Eagers doesn't fully control its own deal. Ferrari, Rolls-Royce and Pagani all have to sign off on the ownership change before it completes in November, and manufacturers can walk away from a single handshake they don't like. The deal is being publicised as "a partnership, not an exit," with founder Bobby Zagame also staying on to run the business.
For Eagers, it's the latest in a run of consolidation plays, following April's Grand Motor Group stake and its Audi Centre acquisitions, as mainstream dealers scramble for shelter while Ford and Mazda go the other way entirely and start importing Chinese-built EVs themselves.
