KUALA LUMPUR, 13 JULY: Carsome Group has agreed to buy 19.9% of iCar Asia Ltd, which is listed in Australia, from Catcha Group. It goes on to say that Carsome and Catcha Group have presented a joint proposal to iCar Asia’s independent directors to buy the remaining 80.1 percent of the company from its shareholders.
According to Carsome in a statement, the overall transaction is valued more than $200 million.
In exchange for the sale of its interests in iCar Asia to Carsome, the Catcha Group will become a stakeholder of the Carsome Group, according to the statement.
“Together, Carsome and iCar Asia provide an integrated automotive ecosystem — for dealers to source, advertise, and sell cars; and for consumers to research, sell, and buy cars — in a region that trades over US$55 billion in automobiles annually,” Carsome said.
Carsome is the market leader in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore for online used car buying and selling, while iCar Asia is the leading listings and content automotive platform in those same markets, according to the report.
The planned merger between Carsome Group and iCar Asia, according to Carsome, has considerable advantages, including a US$1 billion revenue objective for 2021 and the largest automotive data set, with about 100,000 cars transacted annually and over 10 million monthly unique visitors to the platforms.
The proposed acquisition of iCar Asia, according to Carsome, will provide a more comprehensive suite of digital products and services to more dealers and consumers in all important areas.
According to the company, the extended suite of products will provide an end-to-end super-app experience that spans the whole car purchasing and selling value chain.
It further stated that as Carsome Group expands its solutions to encompass the whole car ownership journey — from search, transaction, finance, and insurance to after-sales services — consumers will benefit from a seamless, one-stop solution.
Eric Cheng, Carsome’s co-founder and group CEO, will head the Carsome Group as CEO, and the company welcomes Catcha’s co-founder and Group CEO Patrick Grove’s support as a co-founder alongside Cheng and Jiun Ee Teoh to help drive the company’s future growth.
“We’re thrilled to have Patrick join us, as he adds two decades of experience in technology entrepreneurship and capital markets to the table. This purchase is a critical component of our growth plan in Southeast Asia to develop the complete automotive ecosystem, as well as how we are transforming the industry via trust, transparency, and technology “Cheng stated.
“This is the first step toward forming the largest digital automobile group in the region in terms of revenue, user base, largest live listing, and greatest end-to-end fulfillment capacity.”
Grove stated, ” “It’s tremendously powerful to combine iCar Asia’s large traffic and dealer network in the region with Carsome’s dominant position in automotive e-commerce. We are thrilled to become shareholders in Carsome and work with Eric and his team to strengthen our leading position. We look forward to helping the combined company dominate the US$55 billion digital vehicle industry in Southeast Asia in the next years.”
Bloomberg reported last month, citing people familiar with the situation, that Carsome is considering going public in the United States in a deal that would make it Malaysia’s first unicorn.
Carsome is working with advisers and aiming for a $2 billion valuation in a listing, which may be a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) or a traditional initial public offering, according to the wires.
Catcha Group announced the pricing of its SPAC Catcha Investment Corp initial public offering of 27.50 million shares at a price of US$10.00 per unit on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this year in February./n
