SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: carsales.com Ltd (ASX:CAR) and Banco Santander (Brasil) S.A. have signed an agreement where carsales will acquire an additional 40% of webmotors S.A., the number one automotive digital marketplace in Brazil.

The acquisition price is BRL $1.24 billion, or approximately AUD 353 million, increasing carsales’ stake in webmotors to 70%, while Santander retains a 30% stake.

webmotors and Santander will continue their valuable contractual relationship. Santander will retain its commercial exclusivity in that it continues to be the credit and financial solutions partner for finance and insurance transactions made through the webmotors platform.

The expectation is that the equity change will allow webmotors to benefit further from carsales’ expertise in digital marketing, customer experience, products, and services within the digital automotive ecosystem. This will enable webmotors to strengthen its market position while retaining the strong support of Santander, the auto loans market leader in Brazil. This will improve its offering for dealerships, franchises, OEMs and consumers.

“We believe that the new format of the agreement will allow us to further expand the volume of car financing made through the portal and to access technological innovation that will certainly result from this partnership”, explains Angel Santodomingo, CFO from Santander Brasil.

“At the same time, it further boosts the development of webmotors due to its proximity to a company that is the best international partner we could have in this segment.”

The Group CEO of carsales, Cameron McIntyre commented: “carsales and Santander have developed a strong working partnership over the last 10 years of joint ownership in webmotors, which is reflected in webmotors’ market leadership in one of the largest and fastest growing car markets in the world. webmotors is an outstanding automotive digital marketplace business with an innovative culture, a proven track record of strong growth over time and significant opportunities for future growth. Closer alignment to the carsales business makes strategic sense for both carsales and Santander to ensure webmotors’ continued long term success and delivery of value to our shareholders. With this acquisition carsales and Santander reverse equity positions in webmotors and maintain Santander’s important commercial exclusivity for credit and financial solutions on the webmotors platform.”