Last December we met NewCo, the new joint venture of Autocasión Hoy and Autoscout24 Spain. The Vocento Group will lead this association of companies dedicated to online car classification in Spain.
In a final section we will mention the sale of businesses most relevant in the sector at the international level.
About Autocasión Today
Autocasion is a automotive portal of Spain that has been offering an online car search service for more than 20 years, both to sell and to buy. Within its catalogue of categories we can find second-hand cars, 0 km cars, new cars, electric cars, industrial vehicles, classic cars, caravans and trailers or cars without license, among others.
According to data published by the ABC newspaper At the end of 2017, Autocasión has 50 employees, receives 4 million visits per month and is in the top 3 of the transactional motor portals in Spain. We do not rule out that these figures are currently higher, making it the leader of the top.
Autocasion is a company controlled by Classifieds Developmentwhich in turn is a subsidiary of the Vocento Group. Based on the 2017 data, it obtained some revenues of EUR 6.5 million and EBITDA of EUR 1.7 million..
About Autoscout24 Spain
As in the previous case, Autoscout24 is a online classified advertising platform and specialises in the sale of second-hand vehicles. With more than 15 years of experience in the sector, Autoscout is present in 18 countries and has more than 50,000 customers throughout Europe.
It is a subsidiary of the German Scout24which controls it at 100%. Its 2017 financial data reflect a turnover of 7.1 million euros and an EBITDA of 1.9 million euros..
NewCo, the new joint venture
On December 21st Autoscout24 and Autocasión created a joint venture for the integration of its online car classifieds business in Spain. Specifically, the new company, called NewCo (or Alpinia Investments 2018), integrates the respective businesses.
NewCo is thus integrated into the Vocento Group and will be controlled to 50% plus one action by Classifieds Development and the remainder of the share capital by Autoscout24.
As a preliminary step of the operation, Classifieds Development carried out the purchase of the 40% from Autocasion for a value of 7.2 million euros.2 million over the next three years depending on various objective criteria.
Other international operations in the sector
1. The Car Buying Group
On 22 October 2018, we learned of the sale of The Car Buying Group (TCBG), one of the world's leading car buying companies. UK's largest independent consumer car buyerto Aston Barclay. The amounts involved in the transaction are not known.
Selling more than 10,000 cars nationwide and interacting with tens of thousands more, TCBG is ranked number 20 in the Sunday Times "Tech Track 100" list of 2018, listed as one of the fastest growing private technology companies.
The acquisition will enable Aston Barclay to expand the range of new products and services it offers its customers, while TCBG will benefit from the group's strong IT reputation to launch new technologies designed and developed in-house.
2. Cheki
Cheki.com is an online marketplace where Nigerian car dealers, importers and private sellers list their cars for domestic sale. Not the cars directly, but they offer a state-of-the-art advertising medium for Nigerians to buy and sell their cars, 4WDs, vans, bikes, trucks and other vehicles.
Ringier acquired the Nigerian company on 1 December 2017 for an undisclosed sum. Ringier is a Swiss media company that operates internationally and produces more than 120 newspapers and magazines.
3. Chileautos
Australian online car classifieds company Carsales announced on 29 May 2016 the acquisition of a controlling stake in car classifieds platform Chileautos.
El 83 % of the Chilean company was acquired for USD 15 million. of the cash reserves, and Carsales retained the option to purchase the remaining 17 % for any time up to 2020.
Paul Barlow, CEO de Carsales, dijo lo siguiente: «Chile es la economía más fuerte de América Latina, medida por el PIB per cápita y, dado que Chileautos es el número uno en su mercado, hay un alza significativa que se obtendrá al utilizar la experiencia y la tecnología de Carsales”.
4. Beepi
Beepi is a Los Altos, California-based company that offers a peer-to-peer online marketplace for buying and selling used cars. Its app, available for both desktop and mobile, was launched in April 2014.
Fair, on the other hand, is a California-based car rental company that aims to grant access to mobility to any user through the car-as-a-service (CaaS) concept. It offers customers the freedom to drive the car they want for as long as they want, and the flexibility to drive away at any time.
On 7 December 2016, the sale of Beepi to Fair for an undisclosed amount was confirmed. Currently Beepi is closed.