Cars45 CEO Explains Why Company Was Acquired by OLX, and Now Jiji
- HjhnCars45 ownership has changed from one classifieds business, OLX, to another, Jiji, with the new acquisition expected to be a longterm
- The CEO of Cars45, Soumobroto Ganguly, said the acquisition was meant to be considering the company has an appealing business model
- Ganguly said Cars45 has been thinking about partnering with a market player in sub-saharan Africa since January this year
The Chief Executive Officer of Cars45, Soumobroto Ganguly, has addressed the continuous changes in the company's ownership in the last three years.
Cars45 was recently acquired by classifieds firm, Jiji, with an undisclosed amount. The deal changed the ownership structure from OLX Group to the digital listing company.
Previous Cars45 leadership structure
In the fourth quarter of 2019, OLX Group had acquired the Frontier Cars Group (FCG), the majority shareholder of Cars45, which is headed by Sujay Tyle, after pumping in $400 million into the latter.
Source: UGC
This automatically made the car listing business - founded by Etop Ikpe, Iyamu Mohammed, Sujay Tyle, and Peter Lindholm -a subsidiary of OLX Autos, which is owned by OLX Group.
Both Ikpe and Mohammed have since left to start a rival company, Autochek, but that hasn't stopped the growth of Cars45, which is said to be the best performer in OLX Autos before the Jiji deal.
Why the changes in ownership
While responding to questions from Legit.ng on the ownership structure, Ganguly said Cars45 has continued to be involved in acquisitions due to the value it has to offer.
He said the end-to-end digital auto platform is appealing in the market, so it's no surprise that several deals are thrown at Cars45:
"Our business model was always going to be attractive to all classifieds bussiness."
Explaining why the company became a part of OLX, he said:
"OLX around the world is the biggest classifieds. Their experience in India, Indonesia, or Latin America of combining classifieds with transaction model has been highly successful."
And about the deal with Jiji, Ganguly stated:
"Who will be our ideal partner in Africa is the question we started thinking in January. And that led... us to Jiji."
It's going to be a longterm deal
OLX majority holding lasted over one year and eight months, but Ganguly said the acquisition of Cars45 by Jiji would be a longterm for both companies.
He said they are not merging for a short period:
"Everybody gets married with the intention of staying married, till death [put] us apart - that's what we believe in. We want this to be longterm, permanent, sustainable, and successful."
Cars45 withstanding industry challenges
Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that Cars45 is facing several challenges in the automotive industry, but the company has been able to mitigate through them.
According to Ganguly, the CEO said there are challenges getting information and data, as well as sourcing for cars to meet customers' demand.
It was gathered that other issues include clearing cost and smuggling of vehicles into the country. Despite these challenges, Cars45 remains a market leader.
Source: Legit.ng
