Jiji Acquires Cars45 to Grow Its $3billion Vehicle Listing Business
- Classifieds company, Jiji, has taken over Cars45 as it intensifies effort to compete in the digital automobile listing market within Nigeria
- The deal between Cars45 and Jiji makes it the third time ownership in the former is changed after going through Frontier Cars Group and OLX Group
- The cost of the deal wasn't revealed but it was gathered that both companies will be merged to enable them have one single business model for operation
Jiji, an online marketplace company, has acquired Cars45, a car listing firm, at an undisclosed amount. The acquisition will lead to the consolidation of both services.
The deal is meant to improve the car listing section of Jiji, which is worth $3 billion. The platform is home to several listing sections from residential and commercial real estate, to gadgets, amongst others.
Legit.ng understands that the acquisition will give Jiji access to Cars45 maintenance facilities, as well as its retail outlets across Nigeria, where the digital auto space have been quiet.
Source: Facebook
Cars45 and its many acquisition phases
This deal is one of many which Cars45 has been involved since it was founded in 2016 by Ikpe Etop and Iyamu Mohammed, both of whom have left to establish another online automobile marketplace, Autochek.
Cars45 was initially acquired by Frontier Cars Group before OLX Group took over majority stake in the latter after pumping in $400 million to raise the value of FCG to $700 million, in 2019.
Jiji has now acquired the digital automotive seller from OLX Group. It is not known if this is the last or one of many takeovers, but the Chief Executive Officer of Cars45, Soumobroto Ganguly, believes the current deal make sense.
In his comment on the deal, Ganguly said:
"We are proud to have built a trusted buying and selling experience in autos. It makes sense to combine online and offline expertise. Merging with Jiji is aimed at creating a new kind of automotive retail experience for users in Africa.
"We are confident of jointly building an African Champion in the O2O Automotive Sector. Together we look forward to making transactions transparent and convenient for our customers, dealers and franchisees across all our current and future markets.”
Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that several top executives quit Cars45 to start Autochek, a direct rival, after OLX Group took over as majority shareholder.
Etop had taken about ten workers with him when he left Cars45. The decision shocked the digital automotive space in Nigeria as it meant he plans to compete with a company he founded.
But Ganguly had stated that the market is big enough to accommodate more competitors as Cars45 has been doing all the work in the last four months.
Source: Legit.ng
