The AA significant event demutualization
AA Limited, trading as The AA (formerly The Automobile Association), is a British motoring association.
Founded in 1905, it provides vehicle insurance, driving lessons, breakdown cover, loans, motoring advice, road maps and other services. The association demutualised in 1999, to become a private limited company, and from 2014 a public limited company (PLC). In 2002 the AA Motoring Trust was created to continue its public interest and road safety activities.
In 2021, a consortium led by Tower Brook Capital Partners and Warburg Pincus completed the acquisition of AA Limited (formerly known as AA PLC).For profit company
The association demutualised in July 1999 to become a private limited company, which was bought later the same year by Centrica (owners of British Gas and Scottish Gas). Centrica sold the AA in July 2004 to two private equity firms, CVC and Permira, which in July 2007 merged the AA with Saga under Acromas Holdings.In 2006, CVC and Permira were accused by Labour MP Gwyn Prosser in the House of Commons of "greed" and "blatant asset stripping" of the AA "to borrow £500m on the basis of the AA's assets in order to pay themselves a dividend." The AA responded that they were "happy to have a reasoned conversation with Mr Prosser."In July 2013, the company launched AA Cars, linking buyers and sellers of used cars. The service is a partnership with Vcars, rebranding its partner's existing online service and providing a check of the car's history. At the time of rebranding, over 110,000 cars were available for purchase via 2,000 registered dealers.The AA became listed on the London Stock Exchange as AA plc in June 2014, through an initial public offering in which Acromas sold all its shares. In September 2015, the AA acquired the garage-booking service Motoriety. In that year, the AA had around 3,000 patrol staff.Bob Mackenzie was Executive Chairman from June 2014, having led the buy out from Acromas, until August 2017 when he was removed for "gross misconduct". He was replaced by Simon Breakwell as Acting Chief Executive, and John Leach as Chairman.In July 2015, the AA added more than 500 Volkswagen Transporter vans to their patrol fleet. More vans were ordered in February 2017.The organisation had operated in Ireland from 1910. The AA Ireland business was sold to Carlyle Cardinal Ireland Fund and Carlyle Global Financial Services Partners in June 2016. The company stated that it had 3.3 million paying members in the first half of 2017.The company accepted a takeover offer from a consortium of TowerBrook Capital Partners and Warburg Pincus in November 2020. The sale was completed in March 2021 with the company delisted from the London Stock Exchange.