Rootes Acquire British Dodge
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AGREEMENT has now been reached for Rootes Motors Ltd. to acquire Dodge Brothers (Britain) Ltd., the consideration being over five million Rootes Ordinary shares priced at 21s. This will form stage two of the deal arranged last year between Routes and the Chrysler Corporation. Stage three—a rights issue by Rootes to raise about Ellm.—is expected shortly.
In an announcement on Monday. Rootes Motors Ltd. stated that the arrangements to acquire Dodge Brothers (Britain) Ltd. were subject to consent from the necessary authorities, and involved the issue by Rootes to the Chrysler Corporation of 5,244,557 "A" Ordinary shares of 4s. each, valued at 21s. for this purpose. The present issued Ordinary capital of Rootes Motors, said the staterrient, was 5,000,000 Ordinary shares of 4s. each fully paid and 20,000,000 "AOrdinary shares of 4s. each fully paid.
The net tangible assets which will be acquired in the transaction will amount to about £3,620,000. The net profit of Dodge Brothers (Britain), after all charges except tax, for 1963-64 was £745.000, and about .080.000 for the previous year.
Rootes say that-Dodge will continue to trade as a separate entity under its present management, and that plant rearrangements are already in progress at Kew in preparation for the announcement of a new range of Dodge models later this year.
The statement points out that the Dodge range is largely complementary to the Ccimmer and Karrier ranges and "the result of these well-established companies jointly pursuing their development plans will he to offer their customers the most comprehensive range of vehicles of any European manufacturer ".
There have been reports of a certain amount of merging within Dodge and Rootes commercial ranges—using, for example, different nameplates for basically similar models. There has been no official confirmation of these reports.
Dodge Brothers (Britain) Ltd. was formed in 1921 and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Chrysler 27 years ago. The 14-acre site at Kew produces medium and heavy vehicles of 100 per cent British content; more than half of the output is exported (through Chrysler International at present).