It has been and is expensive for North American Global Auto Holdings to become a Danish car importer. The acquisition of KW Bruun alone cost one billion kroner in interest.
Wismo Group, owned by Global Auto Holdings PLC (GAHP), faces a significant interest expense of almost one billion kroner in 2025.
The expense stems from a loan of DKK 7.9 billion that GAHP provided to its Danish subsidiary, 487 Cornwall Investment, in connection with the acquisition of Wismo Group in 2024. The loan has an annual interest rate of 11.5 percent, resulting in an annual interest expense of approximately DKK 900 million.
This is what Motor magazine writes.
GAHP, which a few years ago was just a small group with 16 dealers in the US and Canada, has undergone significant expansion.
In 2023, they acquired the British dealer group Pendragon, and in 2024, the acquisition of Wismo Group, previously known as KW Bruun Import and KW Bruun NxT, followed.
To finance these acquisitions, GAHP has, according to their annual accounts from 2023, raised loans and issued bonds for a total of DKK 15.51 billion with interest rates varying between 8 percent and 11.5 percent.
This strategy has led to speculation about whether GAHP's business model resembles a private equity fund that makes debt-based acquisitions to get quick results to cover a huge debt and the associated interest.
Wismo Group, which imports a number of car brands, including the Stellantis brands (Peugeot, Citroën, DS Automobiles, Opel, Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Jeep), experienced a decline in market share in Denmark in 2024 and had challenges in ensuring sufficient supply of cars to dealers.
Whether Wismo Group can reverse the trend to such an extent that they can also repay their gigantic loan is not yet known.
First, the importer must concentrate on 1,278 recalled cars with a potentially fatal defect. The bolts holding the control arms on two Peugeot models and a technically related Opel can break.
Although Wismo recalled the cars in December, the importer's dealers were initially told to only repair their own decommissioned cars. However, the group maintains to both FDM and Motor magazine that it has followed all guidelines from the Danish authorities.
