CarTrade-CarDekho acquisition deal may hit a funding hurdle

CARTRADE’S ₹1,080-CR RESERVES WON’T BE ABLE TO COVER THE PURCHASE PRICE

- ANEES HUSSAIN

CARTRADE'S TALKS TO acquire the automotive classifieds businesses of rival CarDekho mark one of the biggest attempted consolidations in the preowned vehicle business.

If the deal goes through, it would create a single dominant force controlling four of the top five auto discovery platforms — CarWale, Bike Wale and OLX Auto from CarTrade, plus CarDekho and Bike Dekho.

Together, the merged entity would command access to more than 300 million users a year and nearly 80% of the country’s online automotive classifieds traffic. However, the moot question raised by analysts is a simple one: can CarTrade actually afford a deal of this size without choking on it?

The Mumbai-based company has built a reputation for disciplined consolidation like absorbing CarWale and BikeWale in 2015, Shriram Automall in 2018 and OLX in 2023, thereby steadily expanding from auctions to consumer classifieds. But acquiring CarDekho would be on an entirely different scale. CarDekho was valued at $1.2 billion in 2021 and has raised over $500 million till date.