CARY, N.C. -

Press releases arrive in the inboxes of us here at Cherokee Media Group throughout each business day. Most times, comments from executives contained in these releases focus on flowery language about the company’s newest product or executive.

However, the opening quote from the top executive at Portfolio Holding stopped me instantly this week. The 13 words attributed to president and chief executive officer Brent Griggs not only succinctly summarized Portfolio Holding’s significant action, but it also gave a view of what’s likely happening in boardrooms throughout the industry.

“We cannot ignore the trend toward consolidation at every level of our industry,” Griggs said as Portfolio Holdings announced it has agreed to acquire National Automotive Experts/NWAN, a Strongsville, Ohio-based F&I products provider and administrator.

Griggs and his fellow executives said the acquisition unites complementary companies with strong suites of products and services but minimal overlap in marketing territories. He indicated that Portfolio’s continuous effort to find great opportunities to grow in an increasingly competitive field drove the acquisition.

“In NAE/NWAN, we saw an opportunity to not only expand and strengthen our own presence in major markets but join forces with a highly successful and universally admired competitor. Whether in terms of performance or corporate culture, we could not have imagined a better fit,” Griggs added in the company’s news release.

This particular development immediately prompted me to remember what American Recovery Association executive director Les McCook noted last fall.

“In the next 24 months, there will be significant changes in the industry,” McCook said during the Innovations in Recovery Summit hosted by ALS Resolvion in late September.

Well, in what seemed closer to 24 days than 24 months, the hosts of that event revealed their own merger development. On Nov. 11 — the opening day of Used Car Week — ALS Resolvion and Del Mar Recovery Solutions announced the completion of a definitive merger agreement, creating a combined company that now operates under the name Resolvion as one of the largest repossession management companies in the industry.

“Combining these two companies makes tremendous sense,” Resolvion chief executive officer Michael Levison said at the time of the announcement.

While not an acquisition like Portfolio’s move, Nicholas Financial announced back in February that it entered into an agreement with Platinum Auto Finance to acquire approximately $19 million of Platinum’s active and performing portfolio.

According to a news release, the deal was the third bulk portfolio purchase of Platinum Auto Finance’s receivable base in as many months. Nicholas Financial indicated the first bulk purchases were $1.1 million and $0.9 million, respectively, laying the groundwork for this much larger acquisition.

“We have had a positive relationship with Platinum for some time now, and we are pleased we could see this acquisition through,” said Doug Marohn, president and chief executive of Nicholas Financial, which is a branch-based subprime auto finance company focused on servicing the needs of local, independent dealerships.

“Bringing over this portfolio to Nicholas increases our indirect portfolio by approximately 10% and will be immediately accretive,” Marohn continued. “It also frees up liquidity for Platinum as they look to further their own strategic initiatives.”

While the developments involving Portfolio and Resolvion wafted of positivity — and rightfully so — not all recent consolidation emanated the same sentiment. For example, Security National Automotive Acceptance Company (SNAAC) announced last August it was departing the auto-finance business. Two months later, Westlake Portfolio Management (WPM) was selected as third-party servicer of SNAAC’s $221 million portfolio.

“The risk-adjusted returns in today’s market do not meet the thresholds SNAAC had set to ensure profitable and sustained growth which led us to this decision,” SNAAC said in its statement as to why it made the decision.

In light of the beyond-our-control turbulence impacting businesses of all flavors nowadays, I sincerely hope the ongoing automotive industry consolidation happens like the earlier development involving Resolvion as well as the recent actions by Portfolio.

Based in Lake Forest, Calif., with operations in Dallas, Portfolio said it intends to maintain NAE/NWAN’s operations in the Cleveland area.

“We couldn’t be more excited to join the Portfolio family, and we know this move will benefit everyone involved — our associates, our agents, our dealers and, most importantly, our customers,” said Kelly Price, chief executive officer of NAE/NWAN. “We are confident that the combined culture and experience in the industry will make us unstoppable.”

Nick Zulovich is senior editor at Cherokee Media Group and can be reached at nzulovich@cherokeemediagroup.com.