German car part firm Autodoc plans autumn IPO at 5 bln euro valuation - sources

Vroom

02/07/2021 15:02

By Arno Schuetze
    FRANKFURT, July 2 (Reuters) - German online car part
retailer Autodoc is preparing a Frankfurt stock market flotation
in the autumn that could value it at about 5 billion euros
($5.93 billion), people close to the matter said. 
    Autodoc was set up in 2008 to disrupt a spares market seen
by its founders as overcharging customers. Today it operates
websites offering 2.5 million parts, such as springs, exhaust
systems, body parts and clutches, for 166 car brands. 
    The company is working with Goldman Sachs  GS.N  and JP
Morgan  JPM.N  on the initial public offering, with the help of
Bank of America  BAC.N , Berenberg and Unicredit  CRDI.MI , the
people said. 
    Autodoc and the banks declined to comment.
    The Berlin-headquartered group in 2019 posted earnings
before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of 45
million euros on revenues of 615 million euros, and saw sales
rise to more than 800 million in 2020.
    Next year, Autodoc's core earnings are expected to rise to
more than 150 million euros on sales of significantly more than
1 billion euros, one of the people said.
    Investors are likely to apply a mix of sales and earnings
multiples when attempting to value the business, the people
said. 
    Peers in the online car industry including Carvana  CVNA.N ,
Vroom  VRM.O  and Auto1  AG1G.DE  trade in a range of 1-4 times
their expected 2022 sales. 
    E-commerce retailers such as Zalando  ZALG.DE , Allegro
 ALEP.WA  and THG  THG.L  trade at 2-10 times their expected
2022 sales and at more than 30 times their expected core
earnings. 
    Autodoc has said it benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic as
customers shied away from buying new vehicles and the average
age of Germany's cars rose slightly to 9.6 years, boosting the
demand for spare parts. 
    The company, which employs more than 4,000 staff and offers
video tutorials for DIY car repairs, is led by its founders
Alexej Erdle, Max Wegner and Vitalij Kungel, as well as by
former Scout24  G24n.DE  manager Christian Gisy.
    ($1 = 0.8437 euros)

 (Additional reporting by Alexander Hübner; Editing by Jan
Harvey)
 ((arno.schuetze@thomsonreuters.com; +49 30220133648;))