CarTrade offers a study in contrast amid internet IPOs

One is an auto classifieds company with over three years of profitability but growing at a moderate pace. The other is an online food delivery platform doubling revenues every year but at the price of a bottomline deep in the red.

Both are new age companies making their public market debuts this year but with remarkably different motivations and approaches. CarTrade’s offering, completed earlier this week, was to allow its investors to sell their shares, while Zomato’s was primarily to build a war chest.

Zomato raised Rs 9,375 crore ($1.26 billion) from its IPO, of which Rs 9,000 crore ($1.21 billion) is for its own use. CarTrade’s Rs 2,998 crore ($405 million) offering is entirely a secondary sale of shares by private equity investors Warburg Pincus, Temasek and JP Morgan.

Increased IPO: CarTrade had initially planned to raise about Rs 2,000 crore from its IPO, but increased the issue size as investors offered to sell more shares. Its valuation at the upper end of the price band—Rs 1,618—is pegged at Rs 7,415 crore ($1 billion), just at the Unicorn mark.

CarTrade’s issue was subscribed over 20 times. Zomato’s IPO last month was subscribed 38.25 times and its market cap was Rs 1,05,399 crore ($14.2 billion) on August 13.