Car e-commerce platform Carsome acquires stake in ASX-listed iCar Asia

Carsome Group, Southeast Asia’s largest integrated car e-commerce platform, announced that it has agreed to acquire a 19.9-per cent stake in Australia-listed iCar Asia Ltd.

Carsome will acquire the stake from Catcha Group. Both Carsome and Catcha group have also made a joint proposal to acquire the balance of 80.1 per cent of iCar from its shareholders for total transaction value of more than $200 million.

If the acquisition is approved, the deal will create the largest digital automotive marketplace in Southeast Asia, according to the announcement.

The proposed integration between Carsome Group and iCar Asia will create a new platform that will have a target revenue of $1 billion for 2021, around 100,000 cars transacted annually, over 460,000 live partner listings, over 10 million monthly unique visitors, over 13,000 car dealers on its network, largest automotive data set, among others.

Carsome Group is the market leader in the online used car buying and selling platform across Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore, while iCar Asia is the leading listings and content automotive platform across those same markets.

The two firms operate in a region that trades over $55 billion worth of automobiles annually, according to Momentum Works Southeast Asia Used Cars Report 2020.

This acquisition unites two renowned tech entrepreneurs in the Southeast Asian region: Eric Cheng, the Co-founder and Group CEO of Carsome; and Patrick Grove, the Co-founder and Group CEO of Catcha Group.

Catcha Group will become a shareholder of the Carsome Group in exchange for the sale of its shares in iCar Asia to Carsome.

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 Cheng.

Last week, Carsome announced that it has acquired an equity stake in PT Universal Collection, a Jakarta-based car and motorcycle offline auction service company, for an undisclosed amount.

The proposed acquisition of iCar Asia offers an enhanced suite of digital products and services to more 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, according to the announcement.