Pendragon’s executive board have all increased their stake in the company.

The UK's largest car dealership said chief executive officer Trevor Finn raised his stake to 2.51% after buying one million shares at 35.50p each, while non-executive chairman Nigel Rudd increased his stake to 1.67%, buying the same number of shares at 35.25p each.

Martin Casha, chief operating officer and David Forsyth lifted their stake to 0.77% and 0.28% respectively, buying 280,000 shares each at 35.50 pence per share.

Hilary Sykes' shareholding rose to 0.28% following the purchase of 40,000 of the company's shares at 35.50 pence each.

Yesterday, Pendragon issued its second profits alert this year and warned that it would have to revise down its profit expectations for the coming financial year to end-December 2008 as a sharp deterioration in the used car market has led to severe erosion in its profit margins.