Naspers set to acquire AutoTrader South Africa

Media giant, Naspers, is in the process of acquiring South Africa’s leading automotive marketplace, AutoTrader.co.za.

This was confirmed in a Classifieds Intelligence report by AIMGroup . According to the report, Naspers head of investor relations Meloy Horn confirmed that the company has filed an application with the Competition Commission of SA. “Classifieds is a core segment for Naspers and auto verticals is part of our strategy,” she said. “As this transaction is subject to approval, we do not wish to add additional commentary at this stage.”

If approved, it will be one of the biggest classifieds acquisition deals to date in South Africa.

Naspers already owns OLX, a horizontal Classifieds portal which it acquired from Fabrice Grinda and Alec Oxenford, and is now operating in 45 countries including Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa

AutoTrader.co.za has the largest automotive marketplace in South Africa and gets over 4,5 million visits each month to online platforms with car shoppers conducting millions of searches across more than 70 000 vehicles on mobile, tablet, desktop devices and apps. It was the first in its category in South Africa to launch a fully mobile responsive website.

AutoTrader launched on the 16th April 1992 as a print publication but has successfully transitioned from print to digital. Its last ever issue of the AutoTrader magazine hit the shelves on Thursday, 30 March 2017.