KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 11): Sime Darby Bhd said today it is acquiring three Sydney, Australia luxury car dealerships representing the BMW, MINI, Volkswagen, Jaguar and Land Rover marques for A$112 million (about RM321 million) to strengthen the buyer's presence in the automotive market there.

In a statement to Bursa Malaysia today, Sime Darby said the proposed acquisition involves the purchase of business assets and properties of the three luxury car dealerships from Inchcape Australia Ltd's automotive retail unit Trivett.

"The definitive agreements were entered into by Sime Darby Bhd's wholly-owned subsidiaries under Sime Darby Motors Sdn Bhd (SD Motors), which in turn is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sime Darby Bhd, and Trivett, the automotive retail unit of Inchcape, on Sept 10, 2019.

"The proposed acquisition is aligned to SD Motors' strategy of expanding in the Australian retail luxury segment and will strengthen SD Motors' presence and brand visibility in Parramatta, which is one of Sydney's most recognised automotive retail locations," Sime Darby said.

The proposed acquisition is expected to be completed by early December 2019, the group said.

According to Sime Darby, the agreements are conditional upon terms and conditions typical for a transaction of this nature and size, including written consents from the Foreign Investment Review Board of Australia as well as the brand principals.

"The consideration was negotiated based on the agreed fair value of the purchased net assets and will be funded by external borrowings. The purchased net assets include all properties, business assets and liabilities that are necessary to operate the car dealerships," it said.

At Bursa Malaysia today, Sime Darby's share price settled down three sen or 1.28% at RM2.31 at 12:30pm. The stock saw 3.08 million shares traded.