CarTrade IPO to open between August 9-11, to raise about Rs 3,000 crore

Offer priced at Rs 1,585-1,618 per share. With no fresh issue, IPO is a complete offer for sale

CarTrade Tech, a multi-channel auto marketplace, will raise around Rs 3,000 crore via an initial public offering (IPO). The offer will be open on August 9 and close on August 11.

The offer is priced at Rs 1,585-1,618 per equity share. With no fresh issue, the company’s IPO is a complete offer for sale of 12,354,811 equity shares by investors and other selling shareholders. The company will not receive any funds from this IPO.

“We are a profitable company. Our cash and cash equivalents are pretty significant. We have enough for all the investments and acquisitions, we may plan in the future. Thus, we only went ahead with an offer for sale,” said Vinay Sanghi, Chairman and managing director at the company.

The company offers a marketplace for vehicle dealerships, vehicle OEMs and other businesses to new and used automobile customers counts Warburg Pincus, Temasek, JP Morgan and March Capital as investors in the company. A professionally managed company, it has no identifiable promoter group. Consequently, there are no members forming part of “promoter group.”

Investor CMDB II will sell 22,64,334 equity shares through IPO, Highdell Investment 84,09,364 equity shares, MacRitchie Investments Pte Ltd 50,76,761 equity shares, and Springfield Venture International 17,65,309 equity shares.

Among others, Bina Vinod Sanghi (jointly held with Vinay Vinod Sanghi) will offload 1,83,333 equity shares through public issue, Daniel Edward Neary 70,000 equity shares, Shree Krishna Trust 2,62,519 equity shares, Victor Anthony Perry III 50,546 equity shares, and Vinay Vinod Sanghi (jointly held with Seena Vinay Sanghi) 4,50,050 equity shares.

For fiscal 2021, the firm reported a revenue of Rs281.52 crore versus ₹318.44 crore a year ago. Net profit was at Rs101.07 crore, up from Rs31.29 crore in FY20.

The company says its platforms CarWale and BikeWale ranked number one on relative online search popularity when compared to key competitors. Its platforms operate under several brands: CarWale, CarTrade, Shriram Automall, BikeWale, CarTrade Exchange, Adroit Auto and AutoBiz.

For the June 2021 quarter, its consumer platforms, CarWale, CarTrade and BikeWale collectively had an average of 27.11 million unique visitors per month, with 88.14 percent being organic visitors.

“Our focus has been asset light and that reflects in our EBITDA. We are the only profitable automotive platform,” Sanghi said.

Investors can make bids for a minimum of 9 equity shares and in multiples thereafter, implying a minimum investment of Rs 14,562 per lot. Investors are required to ensure that the bank account used for bidding is linked to their PAN. Retail individual bidders also have the option to submit the application directly to the ASBA Bank or to use the facility of linked online trading, demat and bank account. The price/earnings ratio based on diluted EPS for FY21 for the company at the upper end of the price band is 84.31. The weighted average return on net worth for the last three fiscals stood at 3.52 per cent. The issue will close for subscription on 11 August 2021.