In 2007, the last year U.S. light-vehicle sales topped 16 million, 28 U.S. dealership groups raked in $1 billion or more in revenue, Automotive News reported.

Last year, only 17 did, according to the latest Automotive News list of the Top 125 Dealership Groups in the United States.

For dealership groups battered by last year’s sales collapse, size offered no haven. That’s one conclusion from a look at the Top 125 Dealership Groups.

The largest groups mostly held onto their rankings. Over the past five years, there have been more changes in the No. 11 through No. 20 ranks than in the top 10. Since 2004, the only new company in the top 10 arrived when the 2008 collapse of Bill Heard Enterprises let the Larry H. Miller Group of Cos. in Sandy, Utah, step up to No. 10.

But the top 10 got walloped last year.

All reported declines, often sharp, in revenue and new-car sales from a weak 2008, as 2009 U.S. industry sales fell 21 percent to 10.4 million.

Between 2007 and 2009, industry sales crashed 5.7 million units or 35 percent.

In those two years, the top 10 groups lost 38 percent of their combined new-vehicle sales, led by No. 1 AutoNation Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Its 2007 sales of 328,963 new units fell 45 percent to 179,521. AutoNation’s revenue fell 39 percent to $10.76 billion last year from $17.62 billion in 2007.

With unit sales off, cost cutting became the rule. No. 6 Asbury Automotive Group centralized many operations and moved its headquarters from New York to Duluth, Ga., outside Atlanta. Another publicly traded group, No. 4 Group 1 Automotive Inc. of Houston, says it trimmed $120 million, or 15 percent of its costs, in 2009.

All of the top 10 except privately owned No. 5 Van Tuyl Group of Phoenix; No. 7 Hendrick Automotive Group of Charlotte, N.C.; and No. 8 Staluppi Auto Group of North Palm Beach, Fla., reduced the number of dealerships they owned over the past two years. Some of that may have been cost cutting, but the elimination of brands by General Motors Co. and franchise cancellations by GM and Chrysler Group also played a part.

With fewer stores and lower industry sales, the ranks of dealership group giants dwindled. The number of dealership groups that sold 10,000 or more new retail units slid from 76 in 2007 to 42 in 2009.

Or consider fleet sales. Once they were the fast route to high sales: The factories sell the vehicles to fleets, and dealers handle the paperwork for a slim fee. In 2007, nine dealership groups, including three of the top five, had fleet sales of more than 10,000. That tumbled last year to just two dealerships that specialize in fleets: No. 49 Bommarito Automotive Group of Ellisville, Mo., and No. 54 Burt Automotive Network of Centennial, Colo.

DULUTH, Ga. — Asbury Automotive Group Inc. reported income from continuing operations of $5 million for the fourth quarter 2009, compared to a loss from continuing operations of $352.4 million in the year-ago period.

Net income for the fourth quarter of 2009 totaled $0.2 million, compared with a loss of $369.7 million a year ago.

Fourth quarter 2009 revenues totaled $898.6 million, compared to $880.1 million reported in the year-ago period. This 2.1 percent increase in revenues was driven primarily by relative strength in new- and used-vehicle revenues.

Fourth quarter F&I revenue was $21.7 million, down from $27 million in the year-ago period. F&I revenue for 2009 was $90.8 million, down from $130.5 million in 2008.

“Our ability to generate increased profitability this quarter, compared to the fourth quarter of last year, demonstrates the continuing benefits of our cost-savings initiatives as well as the strength of our portfolio of brands and geographies,” said Charles Oglesby, Asbury’s president and CEO.

Company officials said Asbury’s heavy truck business continued to be hard-hit by the unfavorable home building and construction markets. In the fourth quarter, Asbury’s new heavy truck revenues declined 33 percent compared to the prior period and, on a pre-tax basis, its heavy truck business lost $1.6 million in the fourth quarter, driven primarily by inventory losses. Asbury’s heavy truck business generated a pre-tax loss of $1.8 million in 2009 versus a $3.5 million pre-tax profit in 2008.

Asbury’s revenues for 2009 totaled $3.7 billion, compared to $4.4 billion in the prior year. For the full year 2009, income from continuing operations was $24.2 million, compared with a loss of $323.4 million in the corresponding period last year.

The company headed into 2010 in a strong liquidity position, with available liquidity of approximately $243 million, including $85 million of cash and credit facility and borrowing availability of approximately $158 million, said Craig Monaghan, Asbury’s senior vice president and chief financial officer.

Asbury also repurchased over $7 million in subordinated debt during the fourth quarter and has no material debt maturities scheduled until 2012. Asbury’s board of directors also reauthorized the company to repurchase up to $30 million in debt over the next 12 months, according to Monaghan.

“Clearly, our financial position has strengthened over the last year,” he said.

Asbury also reduced its operating costs by $87 million in 2009 compared to 2008.

“Asbury has dramatically improved its operating performance in 2009 compared to 2008 despite a 21 percent drop in SAAR over the same period. … we believe the company is well-positioned to generate significantly improved earnings as sales volumes recover,” Oglesby concluded.

DETROIT – An analyst upgraded shares of Asbury Automotive Group Inc. saying that the dealership group is addressing its higher-than-industry operating costs, reported The Associated Press.

Deutsche Bank analyst Rod Lache raised his rating on the auto retailer to “Buy” from “Hold” on Tuesday after meeting with Asbury Automotive management.

The company is undergoing significant structural changes to reduce its costs, Lache wrote in a note to investors. Plus, it will be competing in a market with fewer dealerships due to reductions by Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Co., and that should lead to higher sales for remaining dealers as the economy recovers next year and in 2011, Lache wrote.

“We believe that the company’s structural cost reductions are more permanent than are currently perceived by the market,” he said of Duluth, Ga.-based Asbury Automotive.

Although warranty and customer-paid service work should be down due to people putting off repairs during the bad economy, that will start to recover next year and in 2011 as the economy begins to improve, Lache said.

Reduced income from repairs should be partially offset by growth from dealer preparation, used vehicle reconditioning and wholesale parts sales, Lache wrote.