August 17, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team
Automotive buying and selling sites have been big in the U.S. ecommerce industry for over a decade with sites like AutoTrader, Cars.com, or eBay motors. In Australia, since 1997 the site to turn to has been Melbourne-based Carsales.com if you are looking to purchase or sell a used or new automobile. Consumers can also buy motorcycles, boats, or even a horse on the site.
The rough economic conditions over the past couple years have not prevented the company from maintaining strong growth. It expects net income to rise 21 percent to A$37.1 million in the 12 months ending June 2010 on revenue of A$115.2 million. In conjunction with these positive trends comes the possibility of raising A$248.7 million ($205 million US) this month. If this goal is achieved, it would be Australia’s biggest initial public offering this year. Carsales.com says the number of shares on offer is expected to be between 42.9 and 71.1 million – representing between 18.5 percent and 30.7 percent respectively of the shares outstanding pre-offer – at $3.50 per share.
Australian dot com companies could feel very encouraged if the Carsales IPO goes well and may try to take advantage of the rising market conditions by launching their own initial public offerings. Investors are already speculating about which company will be the next to take the plunge into the market. PBL Media, the largest shareholder of Carsales.com, as well as investors, will be focused on how the market will react to this Australian online car classifieds giant.
Amy is the co-founder of ZippyCart. She went to school for film in Cleveland, Ohio and ended up working in the field of viral video marketing, which eventually led her to her real profession: SEO. When she's not writing for ZippyCart, she can be found out and about Seattle, WA.
