Asbury Automotive Group Inc. sold its three Provo, Utah, dealerships to Salt Lake Valley Auto Group. The deal for the stores, 45 miles south of Salt Lake City, closed June 16.
The stores in the transaction were Larry H. Miller Ford Provo, Larry H. Miller Chevrolet Provo and Larry H. Miller Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram Provo. Salt Lake Valley Auto renamed the dealerships Sky Ford of Provo, Sky Chevrolet of Provo and Sky Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram of Provo.
Kerrigan Advisors, a dealership sell-side advisory firm in Incline Village, Nev., represented Asbury. Managing director Erin Kerrigan did not disclose the stores’ purchase price.
Salt Lake Valley Auto Group, owned by the Keyvani family, has three other Utah dealerships: Salt Lake Valley Buick-GMC, Salt Lake Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram and Salt Lake Valley Chevrolet. Dealer principal Shane Keyvani said he plans to rebrand these stores using the Sky name.
Keyvani’s father, Keyvan Keyvani, founded Salt Lake Valley Auto Group in 1983. The group, which originally had a used-car store and a Suzuki franchise, added the GMC franchise in 2004, Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram in 2013 and Chevrolet in 2018.
Keyvani said the Asbury stores were attractive because of the brands they sell.
“It was brands that we were familiar with,” Keyvani said. “We had Chevrolet and we were familiar with Stellantis and I really wanted to get Ford so I could have all three domestic brands.”
Keyvani said his group is in growth mode.
“We are looking to grow — anywhere in the western United States I could get to in a few-hour plane ride,“ Keyvani said. ”I’d love to buy more stores. I would prefer Utah, but really anywhere.”
Kerrigan said there is significant value in having scale in a market.
“We’re really seeing private dealers very much growing their existing market share in markets in which they already operate,” Kerrigan said. “This transaction is definitely an indication of that trend.”
Asbury Automotive in June also sold two Toyota dealerships in Southern California. The stores, in Lemon Grove and Corona, were Asbury’s only stores in that state. They also were part of the retailer’s December 2021 acquisition of Larry H. Miller Dealerships.
Asbury CFO Michael Welch said on an April 29 earnings call that at least $250 million in divestitures will help the retailer lower debt after its pending $1.3 billion acquisition of Herb Chambers Cos. dealership group. The group said it planned to sell 10 dealerships.
Asbury Automotive, of Duluth, Ga., ranks No. 5 on Automotive News’ list of the top 150 dealership groups, retailing 173,218 new vehicles in 2024.
Kerrigan Advisors is the leading sell-side advisor and thought partner to auto dealers nationwide. Since its founding in 2014, the firm has led the industry with the sale of more than 290 dealerships generating more than $9 billion in client proceeds, including two of the largest transactions in auto retail history – the sale of Jim Koons Automotive Companies to Asbury Automotive Group and Leith Automotive to Holman. The firm advises the industry’s leading dealership groups, enhancing value through the lifecycle of growing, operating and, when the time is right, selling their businesses. Led by a team of veteran industry experts with backgrounds in investment banking, private equity, accounting, finance and real estate, Kerrigan Advisors is the only firm in auto retail exclusively dedicated to sell-side advisory, providing its clients the assurance of a conflict-free approach.
Kerrigan Advisors monitors conditions in the buy/sell market and publishes an in-depth analysis each quarter in The Blue Sky Report®, the industry authority on dealership buy/sell market trends and valuations and includes Kerrigan Advisors’ signature blue sky charts, multiples and analysis for each franchise in the luxury and non-luxury segments. To download a preview of the report, click here. The firm also releases The Kerrigan Index™ comprised of the seven publicly traded auto retail companies with operations focused on the US market. The Kerrigan Auto Retail Index is designed to track dealership valuation trends, while also providing key insights into factors influencing auto retail. To access The Kerrigan Index™, click here. To read the 2024 Kerrigan Dealer Survey, click here. To read the 2025 Kerrigan OEM Survey, click here. Kerrigan Advisors also is the co-author of NADA’s Guide to Buying and Selling a Dealership.
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