Shriram Automall acquires car auction platform BlueJack

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Shriram Automall India (SAMIL), which is backed by Shriram Group and CarTrade, has acquired BlueJack, an online car selling portal. With this acquisition, the company targets to transact over 1.2 million vehicles worth more than Rs. 30,000 crore per year. Along with Shriram Automall’s physical and online bidding platforms, more than 10 million customers will get additional means of car selling through this deal. BlueJack is expected to fully integrate with SAMIL’s operations and group companies in the first half of 2020.

Since its inception in 2016, BlueJack had auctioned more than 25,000 vehicles on its platform. It operates in Delhi with dealers from 10 states, including cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad. The company buys cars using its proprietary pricing database and holds a live auction to calculate an offer within minutes, and then sells the vehicles to one of its 5,000 dealerships. The brand is one of the largest players in the Delhi NCR market and using the Shriram platform, it will be implementing its experience and technology across the country.

There will be a lot of synergies in play with SAMIL’s existing shareholders Shriram Transport Finance Company (STFC), which is the largest player in used commercial vehicles finance and MXC Solutions (which operates the used and new car marketplaces CarTrade and Carwale). The Group counts a base of 10 million buyers across new and used vehicles, loans and insurance among other allied products and services.

The Indian used car market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 18%. It grew steadily in FY19, crossing the four million unit mark, while it is 1.2 times the size of the new car market, driven partly by increasing demand for used vehicles in Tier II and Tier III cities of India. It is further poised to reach seven million cars per year by FY22.

Speaking on the occasion, Sameer Malhotra, CEO, Shriram Automall, said, “We are excited to upgrade our offerings across India with BlueJack. We look forward to learn from them and share our own experience of operating at scale across 150 auction locations spread over 100 tier I, tier II and tier III cities. Together, we believe we can offer the best auction experience for our Indian market with innovative technology. SAMIL’s consistent ability to create unique propositions for their diverse target market and their customer obsessed culture will provide a great launchpad for BlueJack as they scale. On-boarding BlueJack is a continuation of the SAMIL promise – “Certain, omni-channel transformation of the way India rides on wheels.”