Thousands of cars manufactured in Germany are stored at Immingham Docks on March 08, 2019 in Grimsby, England. It has been reported that many car manufacturers are stockpiling cars in the UK due to uncertainty ahead of the March 29 Brexit deadline. French car maker Peugeot has admitted it is stockpiling cars in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Should the deadline arrive without an extension or without a withdrawal agreement, any cars being exported to the UK would be hit by standard tariffs that are set by the World Trade Organization. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Christopher Furlong | Getty Images
LONDON — German online car trading platform Auto1 on Wednesday announced it is planning to list on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in the first quarter of 2021.
It is aiming to raise approximately 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) from newly-issued shares in an initial public offering.
The eight-year-old company, which is headquartered in Berlin, allows consumers and car dealers in Europe to buy and sell used cars on the internet. It claims that it sold over 615,000 cars and generated 3.5 billion euros in revenue across 30 countries in 2019.
Japanese tech giant SoftBank invested 460 million euros into Auto1 in 2018 in January 2018, valuing the company at 2.9 billion euros. SoftBank took a 20% stake in the company at the time, according to the Financial Times.
It’s unclear what the Auto Trader competitor will be valued at after the IPO but people close to the matter reportedly told Nasdaq that the figure could be over 5 billion euros.
“The planned IPO is the next logical step to reinforce Auto1 Group as the go-to online destination for buying and selling used cars in Europe,” said Christian Bertermann, CEO and co-founder of Auto1 Group, in a statement.
While Auto1 isn’t yet profitable, Markus Boser, CFO at Auto1 Group, said in a statement that the company has “demonstrated its path” to profitability.
“The planned IPO will support AUTO1 Group’s growth plans, including expanding our retail business Autohero, which we believe presents a huge opportunity that we can seize based on our existing platform,” said Boser.
