George Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management, is interested to invest in auto dealerships, according to the Automotive News based on information from people familiar with the situation.
Soros Fund Management sent representatives to the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in San Francisco where they spoke about its plan. The fund already completed its research about the auto industry.
Soros is ready to jump into the auto dealership business if the right opportunity comes up. The billionaire investors intends to invest as much as $1 billion on dealerships, according to one of the sources.
Soros Fund explains its difference as an investor
According to the report, Vipul Tandon, one of the representatives of Soros explained to auto dealers that Soros Fund has a different approach compared to the regular hedge funds and private equity funds. He emphasized that the fund is a family fund, which invests the private assets of Soros.
“Soros see themselves as intelligent capital. You’ll run the dealership, day-to-day, but they’ll help you with capital strategies. For example, they may be able to help you with non-core business decisions such as HR. They want current management to stay in place because they don’t know how to run car dealerships,” said one of the persons who attended the dinner.
One of the sources said Soros is interested in high-quality growth and expansion, and to become part of a bigger and better dealership group.
Soros could race Buffett in the auto dealership space
Market observers suggested that Soros could potentially race Warren Buffett if decided to acquire a group of auto dealerships. Last year, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway purchased Van Tuyl Group, the fifth largest auto dealership group in the United States.
At the time, Buffett hinted that his company intends to make more acquisitions in the future given his statement, “This is just the beginning for Berkshire Hathaway Automotive.”
Soros confirms retirement
A separate report indicated that Soros confirmed that he is finally retiring during a private dinner he hosted at the World Economic Forum at Davos. He is planning to hand over the management of his family fund to his chief investment officer, Scott Bessent.
The report quoted Soros saying, “I have retired many times before but this time it’s final. I am devoting all my energies to what I call my political philanthropy and the two activities are not compatible.”
So is Soros retiring again? Or investing in autos? Or both? Only time will tell.
