CarTrade Raises INR 900 Cr From Anchor Investors, As IPO Subscription Kicks Off

Online auto classified platform CarTrade Tech will launch its initial share sale today after it raised INR 899.5 Cr from anchor investors last week, according to a statement on the exchanges. 

“… under Anchor Investors (AIs) portion in the Public Issue of Cartrade Tech Limited, 55,59,664 Equity Shares have been subscribed today at Rs. 1618 per equity share,” said a statement. 

The IPO is an offer for sale of up to 18,532,216 equity shares held by CMDB II, Highdell Investment Ltd, Macritchie Investments Pte. Ltd, Springfield Venture International, Daniel Edward Neary, Shree Krishna Trust, Victor Anthony Perry III, Bina Vinod Sanghi, Seena Vinod Sanghi and the company’s founder Vinay Vinod Sanghi. 

The issue started today and will conclude on August 11 and the price band has been fixed at INR 1,585-INR 1,618 a share. At the upper end of the price band, the IPO is expected to mobilise INR 2,998 Cr. 

Nomura Funds, HSBC Global, Goldman Sachs, Mirae Asset Large Cap Fund, SBI Life Insurance, Jupiter India Fund, Elara India Opportunities Fund, Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance Company, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company, Bharti Axa Life Insurance Company, Axis Mutual Fund (MF), HDFC MF, Kotak MF and Sundaram MF are among the anchor investors. Out of the total allocation, 33.35% was allocated to nine domestic mutual funds through a total of 30 schemes. 

Up to 50% of the net offer shall be available for allocation to qualified institutional buyers (QIB), with at least 15% reserved for non-institutional bidders and at least 35% allocated to retail individual bidders. 

Founded in 2009 by Vinay Sanghi, a former chief executive officer of Mahindra First Choice and Rajan Mehra, former country head of eBay, CarTrade is an Indian multi-channel automarket place, offering both new and used vehicle to customers through platforms such as CarTrade, Carwale, CarTradeExchange, Shriram Automall, Adroit Auto, Auto Biz, and  BikeWale. CarTrade group has over 40 OEMs, 15,000+ dealers and has 180 owned or franchise stores.

In terms of consolidated revenue, the startup has posted INR 318 Cr in revenue overall, with INR 298 Cr as revenue from operations. It reported a net profit of INR 31.2 Cr in FY20. For FY21, it reported operating revenue of INR 249 Cr with a net profit of more than INR 101 Cr, as a result of a massive cut in spending on advertising, promotions and other marketing operations.