AUTO1 GROUP SE "CME painted a bright picture, but execution remains key...."

Research evidence excerpt

AUTO1 GROUP SE "CME painted a bright picture, but execution remains key...."

AUTO1 GROUP SE UBS Research

Key takeaways from the 2026 Capital markets Event

AUTO1 hosted a virtual CMD yesterday, where the company outlined its divisional

‘milestone’ and long-term targets (these were pre-released, please read this note for our

initial thoughts: New long-term divisional targets introduced ahead of today's CME

suggesting upside). The pdf of the CME presentation can be found here. Our key

takeaways from the event are as follows:

Large, fragmented market ripe for disruption – Auto1 operates in an

attractive €700bn European used car market with a €100bn financing pool,

characterised by high dealer fragmentation (250k+ dealers, with the top 20

accounting for <6% share) and generally poor customer experience. These

characteristic create an opportunity for a new way of doing business.

Vertically integrated model enables scale and cross-border advantage –

Auto1’s end-to-end control across sourcing, pricing, logistics, infrastructure and

financing creates structural differentiation, with AI pricing built on 6m transactions

and a pan-European logistics network (170 hubs, 30+ countries) enabling the

efficient cross-border flow of vehicles to their highest-value retailers across many

markets; this drives Auto1's superior pricing, faster inventory turnover and a self-

reinforcing supply-demand flywheel that competitors cannot replicate.

Merchant is a cash generation engine with large share upside – Auto1's

Merchant division currently captures ~7% of the c10m cars in the external car

dealer sourcing needs across its markets, and is targeting a 20–25% long-term

share of that pool. The company expects this growth to be driven by both supply