The Man Who Will Make Nick Saban A Billionaire

Forbes

Meet the little-known car dealership billionaire, and potential future politician, who’s quietly building an empire with the college football great.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2025/04/21/the-man-who-will-make-nick-saban-a-billionaire/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00today on forbes the man who will make nick saban a billionaire joe agresti was on a conference call

00:08in his baton rouge office when an unknown number left a message nick saban the legendary university

00:14of alabama football coach was calling he wanted to open a car dealership agresti now 52 years old

00:21recalls quote i thought it was a prank call i thought one of my buddies left me a

00:26bullshit prank saban thing within a few weeks saban and agresti whose mercedes-benz of baton

00:33rouge was considered one of the nation's best run dealers met for a 30-minute sit-down that lasted

00:39four hours the next day they agreed to go into business together now their dream motor group

00:46sells 20 000 mercedes-benz's a year plus a couple hundred infinities and ferraris across nine

00:52dealerships in alabama louisiana tennessee texas and florida where the pair bought two miami area

00:59stores in a 730 million dollar deal in 2023 annual revenues are nearing two billion dollars

01:08of the partnership saban says quote it's one of the best decisions i ever made it's been really

01:13good for both of us it's been so good in fact that agresti who runs the day-to-day and owns majority

01:21stakes in the dealerships is now a billionaire worth 1.1 billion dollars saban a minority partner in

01:28many of the ventures likely isn't far behind meaning he's set to become the first billionaire

01:34college football coach thanks in no small part to a little-known car salesman with big ambition

01:41agresti who has a huge personality and races through his story at a mile a minute but doesn't

01:46spare any detail says that he pulled himself onto the world's billionaires list by fixating on

01:52operations obsessing over corporate culture and leveraging connections over the course of a three

01:57hour call agresti mentions fourteen quote buddies a half dozen quote friends three quote good dudes

02:05one quote excellent dude and names four people his quote best friend agresti grew up in working

02:12class north bergen new jersey just outside manhattan the son of an architectural woodworker father and

02:18a nurse mother he studied accounting at rutgers and took a cpa gig in the metro new york office of big

02:24six firm arthur anderson he quickly got ambitious handling due diligence for mergers and acquisitions

02:31including auto deals then parlaying his skills into a high-level operations job with dealership giant

02:37and anderson client asbury automotive eventually managing asbury's mississippi business then in

02:442004 an asbury exec gave him a chance to branch out on his own by investing in and running a mercedes

02:51dealership in baton rouge louisiana to buy a 20 stake a 31 year old agresti chipped in his 200 000

02:58life savings convinced his parents to take out a 300 000 mortgage on their house and borrowed the

03:04remaining 500 000 from the exec within a few years he had quadrupled the baton rouge car lot sales

03:12bought out his partner for a highly leveraged 32 million dollars and caught the eye of higher-ups

03:17at mercedes who eventually awarded him the right to open a new dealership near houston in 2013.

03:23around then sabin whose father had owned a small service station in west virginia was mulling going into

03:29the car business himself the coach who had already won a national title with lsu three with alabama and

03:35was on his way to winning three more with the crimson tide had done several events with mercedes

03:41execs gave sabin a couple of star dealership operators to talk with about partnering

03:45he called agresti who won him over with his focus on customer service and creating the right culture

03:51something that resonated with sabin who's famously known for emphasizing process over results

03:56sabin tells forbes quote i interviewed joe and didn't interview anybody else it's like interviewing

04:02a good offensive coordinator you just know it's the right guy for full coverage check out chase

04:08peterson with oran's piece on forbes.com this is kieran meadows from forbes thanks for tuning in

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