Lightstone Group (which is part of the wider Halls Group) has acquired WheelsWeb Group (also referred to as the IDA Group of Companies).

This change in the ownership of WheelsWeb provides the IDA Group of Companies with new and exciting prospects as it is now part of a group that is fully invested in and committed to the motor industry in South Africa. In fact, following this acquisition, Lightstone Group now has assets and investments ranging from Signio, IDA Risk Management, Electronic F&I Services, Vehicle Data Verification and Vehicle Valuation capabilities, as well as many other related businesses and service offerings. We know that all of these are vitally important to motor dealers in their quest to become profitable and sustainable businesses, which is why we are so excited to bring you this news.

While the IDA is and will always be an independent body, it nevertheless has access to all of the benefits flowing from the acquisition of the IDA Group of Companies and, in particular, the opportunities and benefits that Signio and Lightstone Auto (both subsidiaries of Lightstone Group) can offer the IDA Group of Companies.

In a nutshell, the rationale behind the deal is the following:

• The IDA and Signio market presence overlap significantly, and therefore we felt that there would be a natural fit for both our strategies, which will enhance our footprint in the market.
• We believe that our compliance offering is something that complements the Signio F&I platform, and therefore with Signio and IDA partnering in this regard, we can achieve scale and grow expertise to create the largest and best compliance offering in the market, to the benefit of our clients and partners.
• We are aware of the increased compliance burden on dealers and F&Is and we believe that by offering a joint system and compliance framework, we can assist our dealer partners in managing this complex environment thereby adding significant value to their businesses.
• IDA, Signio and iX have already developed and are offering a trade platform to IDA dealers and this transaction entrenches this relationship and the ongoing opportunities of providing a value enhancing benefit to our dealer partners.

From a WheelsWeb perspective we realise that technology is a key enabler for our industry and we have been focussed on providing technologically advanced solutions to the IDA Members. In our continuous endeavour to improve and take our service offering and our new value proposition to another level, we have been looking for an appropriate partner over the last year, which resulted in this deal with Lightstone Group. Having now concluded the deal, the strategy of enabling the industry through technology is one step closer to being realised.

As indicated above, the IDA is and always will be an independent body and, as such, the deal will not have an impact on the Independent Dealer Association and its operational functioning. However, the deal does provide better governance, better industry data, better finance related data, and more hands and feet in the market - all of which is undoubtedly to the benefit of all the IDA members.