Acquisition

Inchcape PLC 30 August 2006 30 August 2006 FURTHER SCALE EXPANSION IN HIGH GROWTH RUSSIAN MARKET Acquisition of 75.1% shareholding in Toyota/Lexus retail business in St Petersburg Inchcape plc, the international automotive retail group, today announces a further significant expansion into the high growth Russian market through reaching an agreement to acquire a majority stake in the Axel Car Toyota and Lexus retail and service business in St Petersburg. Russia's car market is the largest in Central and Eastern Europe and is experiencing rapid growth. In recent years foreign brands' share of overall sales in Russia have been increasing strongly with a 55% year on year increase in sales in the first six months of 2006 to 400,000 units. St Petersburg is the second largest metro market in Russia. Foreign brand registrations in St Petersburg in the first six months of 2006 were 36,000 representing 9% of all foreign brand sales in Russia for the period. Toyota is one of the most successful foreign brands in Russia with sales of around 40,000 units in the first six months of 2006 and a market share of foreign brand car sales of around 10%. Lexus sales were over 4,200, a market share of just over 1%. Axel Car is part of the Olimp Group, a leading dealer group in St Petersburg representing a number of brands including Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Audi, Peugeot and Chery. Olimp has, through Axel Car, built a strong position for Toyota and Lexus in the city with two Toyota retail and service centres, one Lexus retail and service centre and one city centre showroom for Lexus. A new Russian company will be established to purchase the goodwill and assets of Axel Car's Toyota/Lexus business, which will be owned 75.1% by Inchcape and 24.9 % by the Axel Car shareholders. Inchcape will pay up to £38m from existing cash resources for its shareholding including related property. Completion of the acquisition is subject to approval of regulatory authorities in Russia. Andre Lacroix, Group Chief Executive of Inchcape, commented: 'This acquisition provides an immediate entry into Russia with a successful and established business in the key growth market of St Petersburg. Together with the previously announced joint venture with Independence in Moscow we now have two strong anchor points in Russia and are extremely well placed to build a profitable scale business'.- Evgeny Voytenkov, Chairman of Axel Car, commented: 'Inchcape is one of the world's leading car retailers. We are excited to have this excellent opportunity to build a partnership with a strong international group, which will further strengthen our position in the St Petersburg market with one of the most successful foreign brands in Russia.' 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 growing our core businesses, we are looking to develop scale operations in new and emerging regions. We represent leading automotive brands and operate either a retail, or a vertically integrated retail model (i.e. exclusive distribution and retail), depending on the market. Our current key manufacturer partners are Toyota/Lexus, Subaru, BMW, the Premier Automotive Group of Ford, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Audi and Honda. 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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Inchcape (INCH)
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