The move puts Australia’s biggest car retailer in touch with the lucrative leasing and finance packaging business which parallels its retail operations and puts it in touch with a huge fleet market.

It will also support direct fleet business to its own exclusive national agency for EV car-maker BYD.

Australia’s salary packaging industry is worth about $225 million while the novated leasing business is estimated at $1.1 billion.

Eagers Automotive, which is about three times the size of McMillan Shakespeare by capitalisation, made the purchase through its wholly owned subsidiary AP Group Pty Ltd. 

Notification to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) also acknowledged Eagers’ shareholders WFM and NGP, majority owned by Nick Politis.

The purchase followed the on-market sale of shareholder group Perpetual Ltd which sold down 1.272 million shares in McMillan Shakespeare, reducing its holding to 5.3108 per cent from 7.138 per cent.

In January, shareholder group Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group sold 2.77 million McMillan Shakespear shares, dropping its holding to 5.72 per cent from 9.7 per cent.

McMillan Shakespeare is a publicly listed company that is one of Australia’s biggest providers of salary packaging and novated leasing services and industry experts in fleet and asset management.

It is also in the NDIS business and has a bid to buy the disability arm of private equity firm IFM, owner of the $300 million-plus My Plan Manager business. McMillan Shakespeare is competing with NIB Holdings for the business.

Recently, fleet group company FleetPartners was the target of what appeared to be a takeover. The buyers were FleetPartner executives.

McMillan Shakespeare shares closed at $16.79, taking its market value to $1.21 billion. Eagers’ shares closed at $12.79 taking its market value to $3.18 billion.

By Neil Dowling