Mumbai: Cox Automotive, a US-based digital marketing company, has acquired First Choice Wheels, the used car retail arm of Mahindra Mahindra Mahindra.

In this transaction, Mahindra First Choice HDFC was one of the early investors selling four of its holdings through a secondary sale. Inventory. Phi Advisors, the company’s initial private equity investor, sold shares in less than 4% of the sale but retained 25% Other investors also sold smaller stakes, one of the people familiar with the matter said. Cox Automotive and Mahindra confirmed the deal but did not disclose the equity or financial terms involved.

Cox Automotive Auto owns Trader, the largest digital auto marketplace in the U.S., and Kelley Blue Book, an automotive research platform. Mahindra First Choice has Indianblue-Book.com, an online auto valuation company.

Anand Mahindra, chairman of Mahindra, told The Economic Times, “There are huge global synergies being built in this space.” The Blue Book shows its hand at some point. “That is the power of Kelley’s Blue Book, which lags behind India’s Blue Book,” he added.

Mahindra First Choice 3 raised an investment of Rs 94 crore from San Francisco hedge fund Valiant Capital. With this deal, Valiant gained 13.36% At that time, the company was valued at around Rs 70 crore.

“Our investment in First Choice Wheels further advances Cox Automotive’s strategic plan to create and grow the used car market,” said Joee Luppino, Chief Corporate Development Officer, Cox Automotive. “This opportunity allows us to compete with our fast-growing Indian partner. This is an automotive marketplace company. ‘

Other investments in India by Cox Automotive, a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises, are also being evaluated. At the time, existing online used car portals were in the process of being integrated. Earlier this month, Mumbai-based Cartrade acquired Carwale, while Cardekho acquired ZigWheels from Times Internet, which publishes a part of The Economic Times Group. quikr advertising provider also entered the market by heavily promoting its vertical platform, Quikr. Quikr into the market.

Several startups have also entered the space, including Russian billionaire Yuri Milner and SAIF Partners backing Zoomo, a peer-to-peer car sales platform. Droom Others recently raised Rs. 10 crore from Lightbox Ventures and Japanese internet firm Beenos Asia, while CredRR raised Rs. 10 crore from Fidelity Growth Partners India along with other investors to raise Rs 960 crore.

Mahindra First Choice It is one of the few companies to win this award. This is a lucrative segment in India. The company reported revenue of Rs 44 Profit of Rs 192.2 crore and profit of Rs 19.2 crore for the reported financial year 2015. CEO Nagendra Palle expects sales of Rs 7 crore this year.

Rajeev Dubey, chief executive of Mahindra’s aftermarket division He said he had been in discussions with Cox for about a year and the company did not want to dilute his stake in the division. Dubey said the addition of Cox would help “broaden and deepen” the product.