CarTrade to acquire OLX India’s auto business for Rs 537 crore

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

CarTrade Tech will acquire online marketplace OLX India's auto sales business for Rs 537 crore. In a stock exchange filing on Monday, CarTrade said that it will acquire 100% stake in Sobek Auto India Pvt Ltd, the entity which houses OLX India’s automotive business for a cash consideration. OLX is the classified unit of Dutch-listed investment firm Prosus.

Earlier this year, Prosus had said that it was divesting OLX’s automotive business globally on account of weak macroeconomic conditions and rising challenges for the segment. “The acquisition is in furtherance of the strategic objectives of the company to undertake investments which provide synergistic benefits to the existing businesses of the CarTrade Tech,” the company said in the stock exchange filing. As per the filing, Sobek Auto reported a turnover of Rs 1,110.4 crore for FY22, up from Rs 592.3 crore in FY21.

“As part of the acquisition of Sobek, Sobek has entered into an Intellectual Property License Agreement and a Transitional Support Agreement for the use of certain brands and technology,” it added. In its earnings statement released last month, Prosus had said, “Ecommerce consolidated trading losses (or operating losses) from continuing operations of $617 million reflected incremental investment in the group’s ecommerce growth extensions as we continued to invest in high-conviction growth areas. Market conditions deteriorated significantly for this business in the second half of the year and the group is completing an exit of OLX Autos”.