12:25 pm, November 1, 2022
Online used car dealer Cazoo has sold off its Italian business less than nine months after it bought it.
The Stellantis-owned Aramis Group has acquired the Italian division and immediately changed its name back to Brumbrum.
The amount it paid has not yet been released.
Cazoo completed the deal to buy the original Brumbrum business for £67m in February this year.
At the time, Cazoo boss Alex Chesterman said the acquisition would help ‘accelerate’ his launch plans in Italy.
The Milan-based Brumbrum was established in 2016 and owns a 40,000sq m vehicle preparation site in Reggio Emilia that refurbishes more than 15,000 cars a year.
The exit marks the start of Cazoo’s firesale of businesses on the continent as it rapidly looks to retreat from Europe and focus on its UK operation.
The Italian business sells around 1,600 cars a year and generates annual revenues of £25.8m (€30m).
In a joint press release, the firms said the deal will take place with ‘immediate effect’.
The companies said: ‘ For Cazoo, this transaction provides the opportunity, in line with its previously announced plans to withdraw from mainland Europe, to quickly exit from the Italian market, contributing to its plan to reach profitability without the need for further external funding.
‘For Aramis, it is a great opportunity to enter, at attractive financial conditions, a strategic market in continental Europe, representing 20 billion euros of annual transactions, and where Stellantis, Aramis Group’s majority shareholder, has a very strong presence.’
Cazoo is aiming to reach ‘cash-flow breakeven without the need for additional funding’, it said in a recent Q3 trading update.
Its shares have tumbled more than 96 per cent in the last 12 months and are currently trading at just 32 cents.
Aramis has been rapidly growing in Europe and operates in five countries.
In the UK, it owns CarSupermarket.com’s holding company Motor Depot Ltd after snapping the business up in March 2021.
Its portfolio also includes the brands Aramisauto in France, Clicars in Spain and Cardoen in Belgium.
