Autobacs Seven's board resolved on August 27 to sell all 3.53 million shares, its entire stake, in AUTOBACS FRANCE S.A.S. to FairCap Holding 12 GmbH, a Munich-based investment firm, for a transfer price of one euro. The two sides signed a put-option agreement the same day, but the definitive stock purchase agreement can only follow once AUTOBACS FRANCE completes consultation with its employee representative body, a process required under French law that the company says could take up to three months. Autobacs Seven is targeting completion in the third quarter of the fiscal year running to March 2027, broadly October to December 2026.
AUTOBACS FRANCE runs eight Autobacs-branded stores in France and has not made money in years. In the twelve months to March 2026 it posted a net loss of €4.9mn on sales of €44.7mn, following losses of €2.3mn on €48.6mn the prior year and €9.9mn on €53.9mn the year before that. Net assets stood at €23.0mn against total assets of €39.7mn. FairCap itself is a newly formed acquisition vehicle, incorporated in December 2025 with initial capital of just €25,000, run by managing partners Max Koch-Heintzeler and Jasper Delekat.
The accounting fallout beats the deal itself
The one-euro sale barely moves the needle operationally, but it triggers a chain reaction in Autobacs Seven's tax accounting. Deconsolidating AUTOBACS FRANCE required a fresh look at the recoverability of related deferred tax assets, and the company expects to book roughly ¥4.5bn as a deferred tax benefit in the six months to September 2026. It also expects to record about ¥2.3bn in extraordinary business-restructuring losses in the October-to-December quarter tied to winding the unit down. The tax benefit outweighs the restructuring charge, and the net effect flows straight to the bottom line.
What moved, and what didn't
Full-year guidance for consolidated sales (¥300.0bn), operating income (¥15.0bn) and ordinary income (¥15.0bn) is unchanged: Autobacs Seven says removing the French unit from its consolidated results has only a minor effect on those lines. Net profit attributable to parent shareholders is a different story. The company raised its forecast from ¥9.0bn to ¥11.2bn, an increase of ¥2.2bn, or 24.4%, with forecast earnings per share climbing from ¥114.62 to ¥142.64. For context, actual net profit in the year to March 2026 was ¥8.4bn on sales of ¥280.1bn.
| Metric | Previous forecast | Revised forecast | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net sales | ¥300.0bn | ¥300.0bn | Unchanged |
| Operating income | ¥15.0bn | ¥15.0bn | Unchanged |
| Ordinary income | ¥15.0bn | ¥15.0bn | Unchanged |
| Net profit (parent) | ¥9.0bn | ¥11.2bn | +¥2.2bn (+24.4%) |
| EPS forecast | ¥114.62 | ¥142.64 | - |
The higher profit guidance is a tax and accounting story, not an operating one. Autobacs Seven's actual retail business, in France and everywhere else, is guided to produce exactly the same sales and operating profit it was expected to produce before the French sale was announced. The sale itself is not yet final: it still depends on AUTOBACS FRANCE completing the labor consultations French law requires before any binding stock purchase agreement can be signed.