Pinewood to acquire Lithia’s majority stake in North American joint venture

Pinewood Technologies Group and Lithia UK Holdings Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lithia & Driveway, announced an agreement in which Pinewood.AI will acquire Lithia’s 51% interest in their North American joint venture for $76.5M. The acquisition will be satisfied through the issue of 14,560,691 new ordinary shares in Pinewood.AI and values the joint venture at $150M. Full ownership of the joint venture gives Pinewood.AI complete control of its North American platform, removing potential barriers to its broader adoption and supporting its expansion across the region’s $6.5B automotive retail software sector. The acquisition will also simplify Pinewood.AI’s structure and financial reporting, enabling full revenue consolidation and greater transparency. Alongside the proposed transaction, the two companies have signed a five-year contract committing to the rollout of the Pinewood Automotive Intelligence platform across all Lithia’s current and future dealerships in the US and Canada projected by the end of 2028. The contract also includes an agreement on pricing for Lithia’s use of Pinewood.AI. Pinewood.AI expects to generate approximately $40M in annual recurring revenue once the current rollout is complete. With additional North America-specific features planned for release by the end of 2028, projected annual revenue from Lithia is expected to reach approximately $60M. The valuation attributed to the joint venture has been independently supported by Kroll LLC and is based on the deployment of Pinewood.AI’s DMS platform and layered applications across Lithia’s North American footprint.