KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 30): iCar Asia Ltd, the owner of Carlist.my, said today that it has received a non-binding proposal from another automotive Internet platform Autohome Inc to acquire 100% of the shares of iCar Asia for A$0.50 cash per share by way of a scheme of arrangement. At A$0.50 per share, the total price translates to about A$216 million based on the number of outstanding shares.
In a filing to the Australia Securities Exchange (ASX) today, iCar Asia said the proposal is still subject to a number of conditions that include negotiations and signing of transaction documentation, approval from Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB), as well as approval from iCar shareholders and the court.
"iCar will continue to keep the market informed of any material developments in accordance with its continuous disclosure obligations," it said.
"There is no certainty that the proposal will result in a transaction being agreed and put forward to iCar shareholders for consideration and shareholders do not need to take any action in relation to the proposal at this time," iCar added.
Headquartered in China, Autohome is a leading online destination for automobile consumers in the country, and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with a market capitalisation of US$11.5 billion, according to iCar Asia.
Also in the same announcement, iCar said it had made the first drawdown of A$1 million on the A$5 million loan facility agreement between iCar Asia Pte Ltd (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company) and Catcha Group Pte Ltd.
Catcha Group has about 27.9% stake in iCar.
Patrick Grove — Catcha Group's co-founder and chief executive officer — had co-founded iCar Asia in 2012.
Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, iCar Asia, which is listed on the ASX, owns and operates automotive portals in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Its online properties reach about 12 million car buyers and sellers in the region every month.
In August, the group announced that it generated A$6.26 million in revenue in the first half of 2020, representing a 4% revenue growth compared to A$6.01 million in the first half of 2019.
This was achieved despite three months of varying degrees of movement control and forced business closures in all its operating markets.
Nevertheless, the group saw its EBITDA loss expanding for the half year to A$4.09 million versus A$3.69 million in the first half of last year due to factors that include lower-than-expected revenue growth due to Covid-19 disruptions.
iCar Asia added that the month of July had shown a strong recovery, with unaudited July 2020 revenue up 40% compared to the monthly average revenue in the second quarter of the year.
This was due to a rebound in new car sales, with July 2020 new car sales up 155% in Malaysia, 38% in Thailand, and 215% in Indonesia as compared to the 2QFY20 monthly average.