Looks like carmakers are well into DEI

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Gayle Benson and Troy Duhon have been edged out of some of the Ray Brandt car dealerships they had agreed to buy as part of a deal to settle the late auto mogul's estate.

The deal to split Brandt's 14 dealerships and five collision centers between Saints and Pelicans owner Benson and local auto magnate Duhon was agreed in principle last summer but has been undergoing a lengthy approval process from the nine different carmakers involved.

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In recent months, some of the carmakers have exercised their "right of first refusal" to bring in other buyers, according to four sources familiar with the proposed deals.

Now, the transactions set to dissolve Brandt's dealership network across Louisiana and Mississippi — worth some $280 million — are expected to include Damian Mills, a regional auto "megadealer."

Mills controls Mills Auto Group, an empire of three dozen dealerships in eight states, making the Garyville native one of the country's largest Black-owned car dealer group, according to the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers, or NAMAD, an organization which Mills chairs.

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Alan Haig, an auto industry analyst, said there are benefits from the practice, for example to curb poor performers and to advance minority ownership.

"In a lot of cases where there is a sale of a dealership, the carmaker will say, 'What do I get out of this?" Haig said. They might seek an upgrade to a facility or they might be looking to open up a new opportunity for a minority owner, he said.

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The Louisiana native's ambitions apparently extend far beyond his auto empire. Last month, amid the ongoing dealership transactions, Mills asked to meet with senior Benson Group executives and put forward a proposition to buy the Saints, according to two sources familiar with the meeting.

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