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).[15] 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.[16]
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."[17]
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.[18][19] At the time of rebranding, over 110,000 cars were available for purchase via 2,000 registered dealers.[18]
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.[20][21] In September 2015, the AA acquired the garage-booking service Motoriety.[22] In that year, the AA had around 3,000 patrol staff.[23]
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".[24] He was replaced by Simon Breakwell[25] as Acting Chief Executive, and John Leach as Chairman.[26]
In July 2015, the AA added more than 500 Volkswagen Transporter vans to their patrol fleet.[27] More vans were ordered in February 2017.[28]
The organisation had operated in Ireland from 1910.[29] The AA Ireland business was sold to Carlyle Cardinal Ireland Fund and Carlyle Global Financial Services Partners in June 2016.[30] The company stated that it had 3.3 million paying members in the first half of 2017.[24]
The company accepted a takeover offer from a consortium of TowerBrook Capital Partners and Warburg Pincus in November 2020.[31] The sale was completed in March 2021 with the company delisted from the London Stock Exchange.[32]
