In news that will intrigue many in the cheap breakdown cover industry, the sale of RAC has now been completed for the cost of £1bn to the private equity company Carlyle, who purchased the company from insurance firm Aviva.

With this industry remaining ever popular and profitable, it’s unsurprising that there were apparently other similar offers made for the company, with Carlyle eventually being chosen.  Ironically enough, as the original price for the firm back in 2005 was £1.1 billion, a loss has actually been made.

It is also worth observing that private equity firms could be moving into being the next emergency service, as Ayesha Javed excellently notes here.  The AA has been notorious for having been part of another private equity firm over the last couple of years, and having paid minimal corporate tax as a result.

However, the Managing Director of Carlyle, Andrew Burgess, stated that ‘With a high-profile company, as with any company, the decision to invest always depends on the asset itself – it’s all about whether you can add value.’

It will be intriguing indeed to see if the Carlyle Group do end up making improvements to a company such as RAC, and if they also attract the same controversy as the AA did for operating under a private equity scheme.

For more news from the world of motoring and to find out how cheap UK breakdown cover can be, continue to check into the Rescue My Car blog here.