Crédit Agricole Consumer Finance has affirmed its strategic ambition to develop car financing and encourage new forms of mobility, in line with the Crédit Agricole Group’s plan. In this context, CA Consumer Finance is investing €100 million in Cosmobilis, the holding company of ByMyCAR, the leading French car distribution group in Europe, which is expanding into new forms of mobility. At the same time, the two partners are entering into exclusive negotiations to create a pan-European joint venture for their automotive financing activities.
Also Read: Biz2X Wins IBS intelligence (IBSi) Global FinTech Innovation Award
The Cosmobilis group’s activity is organised around four pillars:
- automobile distribution via a network of brand dealerships under the BYmyCAR brand,
- digital car distribution through the Elite Auto and Proxauto platforms,
- En Voiture Simone, the first approved online driving school,
- GOA, a new brand that will offer car mobility services, including the ridesharing services of the Marcel company. Its strategic development plan is designed to meet the new challenges of mobility and includes external growth operations in France and Europe, as well as the strengthening of its activities and the launch of new offers (subscriptions, ridesharing, online driving school, IT services dedicated to the automobile, etc.).
Cosmobilis’ objectives meet CA Consumer Finance’s priorities in the mobility sector. CA Consumer Finance therefore intends to support Cosmobilis’ development by subscribing to 100% of its capital increase, for an amount of €100 million, with the help of IDIA Capital Investissement, a subsidiary of the Crédit Agricole Group. This transaction will enable CA Consumer Finance to become a strategic partner of this major player in car distribution.
A joint venture project for financing
At the same time, CA Consumer Finance and Cosmobilis will conduct exclusive negotiations to create a joint venture that would be involved in all of the car distributor’s financing activities in Europe and would eventually become the preferred financing partner, alongside the manufacturers’ captives. This joint venture could be supported and its activity developed by the European platform that CA Consumer Finance plans to launch following the 100% takeover of its subsidiary FCA Bank.