iCar Asia Limited kicks off 2014 with continuing momentum
April 23rd, 2014
iCar Asia Limited (ASX:ICQ), owner of ASEAN's number 1 network of automotive portals today released its latest quarterly Appendix 4C, recording strong growth of its businesses. Cash receipts from customers for the period amounted to A$0.67m, growth of 630% over the corresponding period in 2013. Net operating cash outflow was $2.46m resulting from continued investment in technology and increases in marketing, in line with the company’s strategy. Closing cash and cash equivalents was just under A$17m.
Key Operating Metrics:
The key operating metrics of Listings, Audience & Leads recorded strong growth when
compared to the first quarter of 2013, demonstrating the market‐leadership positions
established over the past 12 months:
Mr. Damon Rielly, CEO of iCar Asia, said “We have established that our sites have the most amount of vehicles listed for sale in ASEAN (Listings), and with an increase in our marketing expenditure, we are driving strong growth in the number of car buyers (Audience) coming to our sites. This is now translating into growth in the key metric of the number of leads we are delivering to car sellers.” Mr Rielly continued, “It is very satisfying to see our team delivering on our core strategy and our emerging positions of clear market leadership.”
Successful dealer monetization in Malaysia
Beginning in January 2014, more than 1,000 car dealers in Malaysia began paying for their listings via a Feature Listing program. This took place in advance of management’s expectations. Said Rielly, “This has created a far more engaged customer base and the majority of dealers now self‐upload and manage their own listings.”
Strengthened balance sheet and increased relationship with carsales.com
In March 2014, the group completed a placement of 7,179,240 shares to carsales.com Ltd at an issue price of A$1.00 per share, raising A$7.2m before costs. This further strengthens the strategic relationship with carsales.com and takes their stake in iCar Asia to 22.9%. Mr Rielly continued, ”It’s been a very strong start to 2014 and we have some very exciting product developments in the pipeline that will take our business to the next level. I’m very excited about how the business in placed and the year ahead as we continue our pursuit of becoming ASEAN’s largest and most trusted digital automotive market‐place.”
For more information please contact:
About iCar Asia Limited (www.icarasia.com)Listed on the Australia Securities Exchange, iCar Asia (ASX: ICQ) owns and operates ASEAN’s No.1 network of automotive portals. Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the company is focused on developing and operating leading automotive portals in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. iCar Asia is continuously working to capitalise on its market-leading positions, with its online properties currently reaching approximately 12million car buyers and sellers in the region every month.iCar Asia Network of websites:
|