AutoItalia exits Stein era. Sales tripling, the new shareholder's target

Eighteen years after setting up the business, Herbert Stein is selling AutoItalia, one of the importers boasting the biggest number of brands in the portfolio, to Israel’s Mediterranean Car Agency.

Herbert Stein, 81, the first foreign investor on the domestic car market, who in 1993 founded AutoItalia, and in ’94 set up the Association of Automotive Manufacturers and Importers (APIA) together with several importers, yesterday officially handed out the reins of the company to Ori Lehav, the CEO of Mediterranean Car Agency and a temporary CEO with AutoItalia Group.

The official move came several days after ZF had written about the sale of the group to the Israeli company, a deal that in line with market sources revolved around 20m euros. The exact value of the deal has not been communicated either by Herbert Stein, or the officials of Mediterranean Car Agency. Ori Lehav only said “it’s about millions of euros, though below 100m euros”.

At yesterday’s event, Ori Lehav talked about restructuring steps and sales tripling by 2015, to 7,000-10,000 units, while Stein was still less confident in the rebound of the domestic market.