Catcha Media subsidiary, iCar, lists on ASX

• Stock closes up 15% in first day of trading
• Catcha Media’s 52.5 million shares worth A$12m

CATCHA Media Berhad (Catcha Media) announced today its subsidary, iCar Asia Limited (iCar), successfully completed its initial public offering (IPO) on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on Sept 11. iCar owns leading automotive sales and content websites in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
 
On its first day of trading, iCar closed up 15% at A$0.23 per share, making Catcha Media’s 52,500,000 shares worth A$12,075,000, or approximately RM39million, the company said in a media statement. Catcha Media is the largest shareholder in iCar with a 37.66% stake. 
 
iCar closed it’s first day of trading with a market capitalisation of A$32 million (RM103 million) after raising A$10 million (RM32 million).
 
Patrick Grove, CEO of Catcha Media said: “The listing of our subsidiary, iCar, on the ASX is a tremendous result and a reminder of the enormous value in online businesses.
 
“The internet and new media environment is growing very rapidly and opportunities abound. With this listing, Catcha Media again proves it is at the forefront of the industry. To successfully spin off one of our subsidiarires within 15 months of Catcha Media’s IPO last year says something about our ability to build substantial online companies.”
 
Grove (pic) hinted that there is more to come from this aggressive internet entrepreneur.
 
“We will continue our search for new online opportunities and to bring together the best ideas with the best people.”
 
Grove noted that the global investment community is hungry for Asian internet investment opportunities as shown by the success of the iCar IPO.
 
“We will continue to consider all options for funding for the businesses we have and we intend to create – be they public listings and IPOs – the raising of external capital from experienced investors who can add value to a particular business, or from our own internal resources.”
 
This is Grove’s third IPO of an internet company in Asia. In Sept 2007, he led the listing of an Asian online property company iProperty Group on the ASX. iProperty owns a portfolio of property websites across Asia. Grove is the co-founder and deputy chairman of iProperty.
 
Catcha Media is the largest shareholder of iCar. It also owns Hauteavenue.com, a leading luxury flash sales website, and has exclusive partnerhips to operate Microsoft’s online properties in Malaysia and Lowyat.net, giving the company almost 10 million Malaysian online customers and users on a monthly basis.

The IPO was fully underwritten by EL & C Baillieu Stockbroking. iCar Asia has pro forma revenues of $A148,372 in calendar 2011, its prospectus said.

[RM1 = A$0.31]