Capri Global Holdings Pvt Ltd (CGHL), the holding company for Capri Global Capital Ltd, said Thursday it has acquired a 51% stake in new-car selling platform CarLelo to expand its lending business.
Capri Global is making an investment of Rs 150 crore for the acquisition, it said in a statement.
With the acquisition, Capri Global Capital, a non-banking financial company that operates as Capri Loans, will look to expand its presence in the car loan segment. It will also aim to improve its services and technology to acquire customers.
The acquisition will put it in competition against several online new and used vehicle discovery platforms such as CarDekho, CarTrade, Acko Drive, Droom, Spinny and Cars24, among others.
“Capri Loans recognizes this investment as an opportunity to foster the expansion of the burgeoning online new car sales market, all while prioritising utmost convenience in terms of financing for customers and propelling forward cutting-edge solutions within the industry," said Rajesh Sharma, managing director and founder, Capri Global Holdings.
In the financial year ended March, Capri Loans disbursed 60,000 car loans. It is now looking to sell around 7,000 to 8,000 cars every month and aiming to clock around 1 lakh car loans.
CarLelo has 1,200 associates across 34 Indian cities. It also has partnered with more than 8,000 authorized dealerships. The online platform offers a catalogue of 32 brands, 265 models and 1,700 variants.
On the other hand, Capri provides loans to micro, small and medium enterprises, affordable housing finance, gold loans, and construction finance. It also acts as a corporate distributor for car loan products of six commercial banks. It largely operates across Northern and Western India through its network of more than 700 branches spread across 15 states and union territories, including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi NCR, Haryana and Punjab. It has a workforce of around 8,000 employees.