ABKO Properties

Last updated

ABKO Properties was a joint venture between Wichita, Kansas real estate entrepreneur George Ablah and Wichita-based Koch Industries formed specifically to purchase Chrysler Realty Corporation in the late 1970s from a hard-pressed Lee Iacocca. Koch Industries is ranked 2 among the Forbes list of largest private companies. Chrysler Realty Corporation purchases, leases or options dealership facilities and then leases or subleases these facilities to Chrysler dealers. The name ABKO was derived from the first two letters of Ablah's name and the first two letters of Charles Koch's name, who is head of Koch Industries. At the time ABKO was formed, Chrysler was on the verge of bankruptcy.

History

ABKO purchased around 840 Chrysler automotive dealership sites around the country controlled by Iacocca in 1979 for slightly over $100 million in cash. Not all the sites were owned by Chrysler Realty. [1]

Under the leadership of Ablah and his team, Chrysler Realty president Ed Homer (for a brief time), executive vice president Corliss (Corky) Nelson of Koch, [2] acquisition/disposition specialists Wayne Delfino and Frank Mills, and attorney John Schippel, among others, ABKO set forth a strategy to diversify Chrysler Realty Corporation by way of liquidating non-performing Chrysler dealership properties by tax-free exchange and sale.

In 1983, Iacocca, assisted by a government bailout he organized, repurchased 446 of the dealerships in a measure aimed at strengthening the Chrysler dealer network. ABKO dissolved shortly thereafter.

Notes

  1. "Chrysler's Realty Sale May Be Overly Touted". The Washington Post. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  2. "EXECUTIVES". The New York Times. 1982-02-01. Retrieved 2008-06-09.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eagle (automobile)</span> Defunct American automobile brand

Eagle was a brand of the Chrysler Corporation following the purchase of American Motors Corporation (AMC) in 1987 and marketed through the end of the 1998 model year. It was aimed at the enthusiast driver and promoted as more "European" than the automaker's similar models.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Motors Corporation</span> Defunct American automobile company

American Motors Corporation was an American automobile manufacturing company formed by the merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company on May 1, 1954. At the time, it was the largest corporate merger in U.S. history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee Iacocca</span> American businessman (1924–2019)

Lido Anthony "Lee" Iacocca was an American automobile executive best known for the development of the Ford Mustang, Continental Mark III, and Ford Pinto cars while at the Ford Motor Company in the 1960s, and for reviving the Chrysler Corporation as its CEO during the 1980s. He was president and CEO of Chrysler from 1978 and chairman from 1979, until his retirement at the end of 1992. He was one of the few executives to preside over the operations of two of the United States' Big Three automakers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rootes Group</span> British automobile manufacturer

The Rootes Group or Rootes Motors Limited was a British automobile manufacturer and, separately, a major motor distributors and dealers business. Run from London's West End, the manufacturer was based in the Midlands and the distribution and dealers business in the south of England. In the decade beginning 1928 the Rootes brothers, William and Reginald, made prosperous by their very successful distribution and servicing business, were keen to enter manufacturing for closer control of the products they were selling. One brother has been termed the power unit, the other the steering and braking system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chrysler TC by Maserati</span> Motor vehicle

The Chrysler TC by Maserati is a jointly developed car by Chrysler and Maserati. It was positioned as a grand tourer and introduced at the 1986 Los Angeles Auto Show. It is a "Q" body built on a modified second-generation Chrysler K platform. After two years of development delays, the TC became available in late-1988 and a total of 7,300 units were manufactured in Milan, Italy, through 1990. All cars sold as 1991 models were manufactured in 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Lutz (businessman)</span> Swiss-American automotive executive (born 1932)

Robert Anthony Lutz is a Swiss-American automotive executive. He served as a top leader of all of the United States Big Three automobile manufacturers, having been in succession executive vice president of Ford Motor Company, president and then vice chairman of Chrysler Corporation, and vice chairman of General Motors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penske Corporation</span> American transportation services company

Penske Corporation, Inc. is an American diversified transportation services company based in Bloomfield Township, Oakland County, Michigan. Roger Penske is the chairman of the privately held company, and Rob Kurnick is the president. Penske operates in the automotive retail, truck leasing, transportation, logistics, and motorsports industries. Penske operates in over 3,200 locations and employs more than 70,000 people globally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ford Motor Credit Company</span> Fords financial services subsidiary

Ford Motor Credit Company LLC, d/b/a Ford Credit, is the financial services arm of Ford Motor Company, and is headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AutoNation</span> American automotive retailer

AutoNation is an American automotive retailer based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which provides new and pre-owned vehicles and associated services in the United States. The company was founded by Wayne Huizenga in 1996, starting with twelve AutoNation locations, and now has more than 300 retail outlets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keller (automobile)</span> Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer

The Keller was an automobile produced by the Keller Motors Corporation of Huntsville, Alabama, United States, between 1947 and 1950. It was based on the earlier Bobbi-Kar produced by the Bobbi Motor Car Corp. of San Diego, California. Keller Motors restyled the Bobbi-Kar and switched power from a 64.9 cu in (1.1 L) 25 hp (19 kW) four-cylinder to Hercules engines of 133 cu in (2.2 L) 49 hp (37 kW) and 162 cu in (2.7 L).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeep-Eagle</span> Division of Chrysler

Jeep-Eagle was the name of the automobile sales division created by the Chrysler Corporation after the US$2 billion takeover of American Motors Corporation (AMC) in 1987. The division marketed a variety of vehicles until 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Automobile Dealers Association</span>

The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) is an American trade organization representing nearly 16,500 franchised new car and truck dealerships, both domestic and foreign. Established in 1917, the organization is based in Tysons Corner, Virginia. As the automotive retail industry's primary trade association, NADA monitors federal legislation and regulation affecting dealerships and publishes forecasts and reports about industry trends. American Truck Dealers, established in 1970, is a division of NADA representing nearly 1,800 heavy- and medium-duty truck dealerships throughout the United States.

Chrysler LLC and 24 of its affiliated subsidiaries filed a consolidated petition for bankruptcy on April 30, 2009, with the federal bankruptcy court in New York. The court filing occurred upon failure of the company to come to an agreement with its creditors for an outside-of-bankruptcy restructuring plan, by the April 30 deadline mandated by the federal government.

The 2009 General Motors Chapter 11 sale of the assets of automobile manufacturer General Motors and some of its subsidiaries was implemented through Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code in the United States bankruptcy court for the Southern District of New York. The United States government-endorsed sale enabled the NGMCO Inc. to purchase the continuing operational assets of the old GM. Normal operations, including employee compensation, warranties, and other customer services were uninterrupted during the bankruptcy proceedings. Operations outside of the United States were not included in the court filing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bluegreen Corporation</span>

Bluegreen Corporation is an American private vacation ownership company based in Boca Raton, Florida. Currently a wholly owned subsidiary of BFC Financial Corporation with around 4,500 employees, the company provides vacations at 60 company-managed resorts on a time-share basis, with alternative resort and cruise options available through upselling and third-party exchanges. Bluegreen makes its services available to other resort operators on a fee-for-service basis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Chrysler</span> Aspect of history

The history of Chrysler involves engineering innovations, high finance, wide alternations of profits and losses, various mergers and acquisitions, and multinationalization. Chrysler, a large automobile manufacturer, was founded in the 1920s and continues under the name Stellantis North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motors Liquidation Company</span> American automotive company

Motors Liquidation Company (MLC), formerly General Motors Corporation, was the company left to settle past liability claims from Chapter 11 reorganization of American car manufacturer General Motors. It exited bankruptcy on March 31, 2011, only to be carved into four trusts; the first to settle the claims of unsecured creditors, the second to handle environmental response for MLC's remaining assets, a third to handle present and future asbestos-related claims, and a fourth for litigation claims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CNH Industrial</span> Italian-American multinational corporation

CNH Industrial N.V. is an Italian-American multinational corporation with global headquarters in Basildon, United Kingdom, but controlled and mostly owned by the multinational investment company Exor, which in turn is controlled by the Agnelli family. The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and on Borsa Italiana: it is a constituent of the FTSE MIB index. The company is incorporated in the Netherlands. The seat of the company is in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with a principal office in London, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholas Schorsch</span> American businessman

Nicholas Sloan "Nick" Schorsch (born March 2, 1961) is an American entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. Schorsch is the Chairman, CEO, and co-founder of the investment services firm American Realty Capital.