Keystar Motors, Australia

Inchcape PLC 22 February 2006 22 February 2006 ACQUISITION OF KEYSTAR MOTORS Inchcape expands Australian Retail presence with entry into new Brisbane market Inchcape plc ('Inchcape' or the 'Group'), the international automotive retail group, today announces the acquisition of Keystar Motors Pty Ltd ('Keystar') in south east Queensland, Australia. Keystar represents Subaru, Hyundai, Kia and Mitsubishi in the Brisbane area, across two multi-franchise retail centres. Together these businesses generated c. £32.0m of revenue for the year ended 30 June 2005. Whilst Inchcape already has an established retail presence in Melbourne and Sydney, the acquisition of Keystar marks the Group's first entry into Brisbane; a market currently experiencing strong levels of growth. The acquisition further strengthens Inchcape's partnership with Subaru, and builds on the Group's relationship with Hyundai and Kia. The total cash consideration paid for the business will be c. £8.8m, subject to finalisation of completion accounts. Andre Lacroix, Group Chief Executive of Inchcape, commented: 'Australia is an important market to Inchcape, and we already have scale Retail businesses in Melbourne and Sydney. We are therefore delighted to establish a Retail presence in a third market - Brisbane. This is an important high growth market and the acquisition provides us with a platform from which to develop a larger business in that region over time.' Notes to editors For further information, please contact: Group Communications, Inchcape plc 020 7546 0022 Hogarth Partnership Limited (John Olsen/Barnaby Fry) 020 7357 9477 Inchcape is a scale automotive retail group operating in Australia, Belgium, Greece, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK. The Group also has operations in a number of other global markets. In addition to expanding our core businesses, we are looking to develop scale operations in new and emerging regions. We represent leading automotive brands and operate either a pure retail, or a vertically integrated retail model (i.e. distribution and retail), depending on the market. Our key manufacturer partners are Toyota/Lexus, Subaru, BMW, the Premier Automotive Group of Ford, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen. For further information, visit us at www.inchcape.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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