Why is Carsome delaying its planned dual Singapore and American public listing?
In the past 6 days there has been some social media chatter about the delayed listing of the much published Carsome ‘unicorn’ value listing scheduled for this year in Singapore and also America.
Bloomberg news portal last week reported that Carsome, which is a popular used car online buy and sell platform (competes directly with MyTukar and Mudah.my) which operates a Southeast Asian used-car online marketplace, is delaying its dual listing plans in Singapore and the US on concerns that deteriorating macroeconomic conditions could dent its valuation, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Touted in recent months as Malaysia’s most valuable technology startup, the Carsome group has halted work on the planned offerings that were set for this year, the people around the project said.
Interestingly, the Carsome Group might revive this first-time share sales next year if the regional markets improve (and if the business can continue to weather the slowing used car take up rate), said the people, who asked not to be identified as the process is private.
In the past one week since the news broke across major news portals around the ASEAN region, there has be no shared news on Carsome’s two recently acquired motoring websites which are facing internal issues the past few months.
Meanwhile, it is known that the Carsome Group raised USD290 million in January 2022 at a valuation of USD1.7 billion in a series E round led by the Qatar Investment Authority as well as 65 Equity Partners and Seatown Private Capital Master Fund, both of which are backed by Temasek Holdings. This was shared by Business Times Singapore.
Founded in 2015, Carsome has expanded into Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore. The company works with more than 8,000 dealers and handles more than 100,000 transactions on an annualised basis, according to its own website information, no other sources are available at this time to verify this information.
The Carsome Group completed the acquisition of Australia-listed iCar Asia for about AUD191 million (SGD184.3 million) earlier this year as the used car and news site started feeling the after-effects of Covid-19.
It was also reported back in June 2021 that the Carsome Group had a valuation of USD8.3 billion with its business expanding in Thailand, Indonesia and also Malaysia.
