Elara Capital described CarTrade as a “multi-platform auto and classifieds marketplace, offering discovery, remarketing and value-added services.” Its consumer portals, CarWale and BikeWale, “anchor discovery, driving qualified leads,” monetised through pro-seller and dealer memberships, advertising, and services including finance, insurance, and logistics.
The brokerage highlighted the OLX India acquisition, noting it “deepened its leadership in auto classifieds, adding India’s largest C2C audience and listings density, to drive lead generation and strengthen pricing power.” The deal also “opened up scaled non-auto categories (electronics, real estate), broadening monetisation without a step-up in customer acquisition cost (CAC).”
Elara forecasts CarTrade’s revenue, EBITDA, and PAT to grow at CAGRs of 25%, 37%, and 25% respectively through FY28E, reaching Rs 12.6bn, Rs 3.8bn, and Rs 2.8bn. The brokerage expects OLX India’s gross merchandise value to rise nearly 12% annually, driven by market-share gains in used cars and overall goods, while EBITDA margins are projected to expand to 30.6% from 23.5% in FY25.
“CARTRADE is a net cash company, reflecting category leadership, low-CAC economics, and a clear monetisation runway,” the brokerage said.
Strong market momentum
Technically, CarTrade is trading above six of its eight key simple moving averages (SMA), including the 10-day, 30-day, 50-day, 100-day, 150-day, and 200-day SMAs, while remaining below its 5-day and 20-day SMAs. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) stands at 52.8, signaling neither overbought nor oversold conditions, while the MACD is at 35.8, above its center line but below the signal line.
Last week, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund bought 3.9 lakh shares in a deal worth Rs 98 crore. CarTrade, listed in August 2021, has a market capitalization of Rs 11,895 crore on the NSE.
Cash-rich, debt-free and expansion-ready
Elara highlighted CarTrade’s strong balance sheet, with Rs 7.5 billion in net cash. The brokerage expects the company to generate Rs 2.1 billion in cumulative free cashflow through FY25-28, funding investments in technology, EV adjacencies, and expansion while preserving capital efficiency.Scale optionality from classifieds is another key factor. According to Elara, the OLX India acquisition “adds horizontal optionality in real estate and electronics alongside autos,” allowing monetisation to scale via paid visibility, pro-seller subscriptions, and verified sellers, “without step-ups in capex or CAC.”
The brokerage identified key risks as slower monetisation at OLX, integration challenges, and cyclicality in auction volumes.
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(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times)
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