Eric Cheng, co-founder of Carsome
Carsome Group, Southeast Asian car e-commerce platform has acquired 19.9 per cent of ASX (Australian Stock Exchange)-listed iCar Asia from Catcha Group.
The total transaction is estimated to be worth more than US$200 million.
Both the companies have made a joint proposal to the independent directors of iCar Asia to acquire the balance of 80.1 per cent of iCar from its shareholders.
Catcha Group will also become a shareholder of the Carsome Group in exchange for the sale of its shares in iCar Asia to Carsome.
iCar Asia’s acquisition will offer an enhanced suite of digital products and services to dealers and consumers in all key markets.
The expanded suite of solutions will offer an end-to-end, super-app experience that covers the entire car buying and selling value chain
Also Read: Carsome snags US$30M Series D to strengthen its C2B and B2C offerings
Founded in 2015, Carsome provides end-to-end solutions to consumers and used car dealers — from car inspection to ownership transfer to financing.
The company continues to grow fast claiming to have an annualised revenue of US$800 million with plans to achieve US$1 billion this year.
“We are excited to have Patrick Grove, co-founder of Catcha Group to join us as he brings along two decades of tech entrepreneurship and capital market expertise. This transaction is an important part of our growth strategy to build the entire automotive ecosystem in Southeast Asia and part of how we are transforming the industry through trust, transparency, and technology,” said Eric Cheng, co-founder of Carsome.
“This is the first step toward consolidation to form the largest digital automotive group in terms of revenue, user base, largest live listing, and the best end-to-end fulfilment capability in the region,” he added.
“Bringing iCar Asia’s extensive traffic and dealer network in the region together with Carsome’s leadership position in automotive e-commerce is extremely powerful. We are excited to join Carsome as shareholders and work with Eric and his team to expand our leadership position and look forward to helping the combined business dominate the US$55 billion digital automotive space in Southeast Asia in the years ahead,” added Grove.
A few days ago Carsome also managed to acquire an equity stake in Indonesian offline car and motorcycle auction service company, PT Universal Collection (PT UC).
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Image Credit: Carsome
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