Cazoo sells off Cazana used car valuations business for undisclosed sum

Cazoo has completed the disposal of the used car data insights platform Cazana for an undisclosed sum just over 17 months after acquiring the business for £25 million.

The online used car retailer revealed that it had completed the latest in a series of business sales – part of a cost-saving strategy aiming to deliver net savings of over £100m by end of 2023 – in an announcement published via the New York Stock Exchange last night (February 22).

Percayso Vehicle Intelligence has acquired Cazana and said the move would "revolutionise the vehicle data sector by providing next generation insurance insight and tools, delivering unrivalled uplift for both insurers, MGAs and brokers, creating a powerful competitive advantage".

Cazoo, which maintained its claim of being “the UK’s leading online car retailer” in its announcement, said: “The disposal aligns with Cazoo’s strategy to focus on its core business as the leading online car buying and selling platform in the UK as opposed to providing data services to third parties.

“The agreement includes the sale of the Cazana brand, platform and commercial contracts and Cazoo will continue to benefit from the expertise gained from acquiring Cazana in 2021.

“The sale is not expected to have any material impact on anticipated revenues for Cazoo in 2023.”

In an interview with AM back in July last year Cazoo’s former vice president of insight and analytics Rupert Pontin described how the platform – rebranded as Cazoo Data Services – had withdrawn its vehicle valuations services from third-party customers.

Speaking at the time Pontin, who its now commercial director at Auto One API, said: “This time last year (Cazana was) very high profile and had some great products available for customers. Now, very suddenly, it’s all been kept in-house.

“The loss of Cazana has certainly left a gap in the market. There are other players out there and Auto Trader offers a vast array of tools that undoubtedly help retails gain visibility and sell cars, but nobody else served-up that whole market data piece.”

Former ASE director Mike Jones expressed some confusion at the sale, describing Cazana as “one of the (Cazoo) acquisitions which did actually make sense to me.”

He added: “The sale should bring them a couple of months additional cash headroom at least.”

In recent months Cazoo has completed its withdrawal from mainland Europe following a rapid expansion build on acquisitions made possible by market capital funding.

Earlier this month AM reported how it had completed a ‘reverse stock split’ process to merge its share capital in bid to boost trading values on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

The move came as Cazoo consulted staff over the closure of 15 customer handover centres and a number of vehicle preparation centres in the UK.

Back in August AM reported that Cazoo was already in breach of NYSE rules which require listed companies to maintain an average closing share price of at least $1.00 over a consecutive 30 trading-day period or risk being delisted.

Cazoo's shares have remained below $1.00 since July 14, 2022, except for July 23 when they reached $1.01 and August 2 and 3, when their value reached $1.01 and $1.03, respectively.