French second hand car group Aramis eyeing IPO
08/03/2021 17:47
PARIS, March 8 (Reuters) - France's Aramis Group, which
specialises in selling second hand cars online, said on Monday
it was exploring an initial public offering (IPO) in Paris this
year following a boom in used vehicle sales and as it looks to
grow across Europe.
The firm - which is 70% owned by Stellantis STLA.MI
STLA.PA , the carmaker formed by the merger of France's PSA and
Italian-American group Fiat Chrysler - also announced it was
entering the UK market with a majority stake in MotorDepot,
which owns the CarSupermarket.com platform.
It did not give financial details for the purchase but said
in a statement it would push Aramis' annual sales to above 1
billion euros ($1.2 billion).
The group already operates in Spain and Belgium, and has
benefited from surging interest in used cars in the COVID-19
pandemic, when people have shied away from other forms of
transport.
Its revenues, excluding some Belgian trading activities it
plans to discontinue, were up 16% to 851 million euros in its
financial year to September 2020.
Stellantis would remain a majority shareholder following a
stock market listing, Aramis said, while two of the group's
co-founders would also have stakes.
"An IPO would reinforce the group's strategic and financial
flexibility to capture the significant growth opportunities
ahead and accelerate its development across Europe," the company
said.
French cloud computing services provider OVHcloud has also
started the process for a potential listing in Paris, a
spokeswoman said on Monday, after a slow start to the year for
French IPOs. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2L63PA
($1 = 0.8434 euros)
(Reporting by Sarah White. Editing by Mark Potter)
((sarah.white1@thomsonreuters.com; + 33 (0) 1 49 49 56 85;))