CarTrade Shares Jump 14% After Agreeing To Buy OLX India’s Auto Business

Shares of the listed Indian used cars marketplace CarTrade jumped more than 14% on intraday trading on Tuesday (July 11) after it announced the 100% acquisition of OLX India’s auto business for a consideration of INR 537 Cr.

The surge followed a rise in the share trade volume of more than 9.16 times at markets open on Tuesday. 

At 11:06 AM on Tuesday, CarTrade’s shares were trading at INR 557.30 apiece on the BSE, 14.35% higher than Monday’s (July 10) close of INR 487.35. CarTrade’s shares hit an intraday high of INR 564.10 apiece, nearly 16% higher than the last close.

In an exchange filing on Monday, CarTrade said it has entered into a share purchase agreement with Sobek Auto India and its holding company OLX India BV to acquire a 100% stake in Sobek from OLX India BV.

At the time of the acquisition, CarTrade said the deal would bring ‘synergistic benefits’ to its existing business. The acquisition is expected to be completed in 21-30 days.

Per the Monday filing, Sobek also picked up OLX India’s classifieds business. Sobek entered into an intellectual property (IP) license agreement and a transitional support agreement for using some brands and technology as part of the acquisition.

Investment major Prosus owns a 99% stake in the OLX Group and was in talks with multiple parties to sell OLX’s India classifieds business. Earlier this year, Prosus had reportedly held talks with Spinny and Cars24 to sell OLX India’s auto business.

OLX Autos reported a trading loss of $418 Mn in FY23, while its ecommerce business reported a trading loss of $401 Mn. OLX Group also laid off 1,500 or 15% of its workforce earlier his year, citing adverse macroeconomic conditions.

CarTrade primarily competes against Cars24, Spinny, CarDekho and Droom in India’s highly disorganised used cars market. The listed startup reported a net profit of INR 40.43 Cr in FY23 against a loss of INR 121.35 Cr in FY22.