March Capital Offloads CarTrade Shares Worth Over INR 70 Cr In Bulk Deals

Online classifieds and auto auction platform CarTrade Technologies’ pre-IPO shareholder March Capital offloaded almost 9.5 Lakh shares of the company in bulk deals worth over INR 70 Cr on Wednesday (March 6). 

March Capital holds stake in CarTrade via MCP3 SPV and Springfield Venture International. While Springfield Venture International sold 6.32 Lakh CarTrade shares, or a 1.35% stake, worth INR 46.7 Cr, MCP3 SPV offloaded 3.16 Lakh shares, or a 0.67% stake, in a deal worth INR 23.3 Cr.

This is the first time Springfield has sold shares of CarTrade after the company’s initial public offering (IPO), when it offloaded shares as part of the offer for sale. 

As per the BSE data, Springfield held 16.43 Lakh shares of CarTrade and MCP3 SPV held 12.99 Lakh shares in the company at the end of quarter ended December 2023. These numbers had remained unchanged since the company’s IPO.

Following the stake sale today, March Capital is expected to hold 19.94 Lakh shares in the company.

With the bulk deal, shares of CarTrade slumped today and ended the trading session 2.8% lower at INR 724.55 on the BSE.

The shares fell despite ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund lapping up 6.77 Lakh of the offloaded shares in bulk deals. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company bought 2.71 Lakh shares.

It is pertinent to note that the shares of CarTrade were on an upward trend for the last few trading sessions. 

In its last reported quarter, Q3 FY24, CarTrade reported a net loss of INR 23.5 Cr, hurt by the loss in the auto sales division of the OLX business that it shut during the quarter. The company was net profitable in the year-ago period.

CarTrade’s operating revenue jumped over 42% year-on-year to INR 138.6 Cr in Q3 FY24.