World Crisis Online

By Robert Fenner

(Updates with closing share price in second paragraph.)

March 7 (Bloomberg) — Carsales.com.au Ltd., Australia’s most popular automotive website, fell the most in four months in Sydney trading after Nine Entertainment Co. sold its 49 percent stake at a discount to raise A$566 million ($574 million).

Carsales.com.au fell 4.6 percent to A$5 at the 4:10 p.m. close of Sydney trading, the biggest decline since Oct. 19. Nine Entertainment, controlled by buyout firm CVC Asia Pacific, said today it sold its shares to institutions at A$4.92 apiece, a 6.1 percent discount to the March 4 closing price.

Nine, which owns Australia’s second-most watched television network, sold its stake after a 50 percent jump in Carsales.com.au’s share price since the website sold stock to the public at A$3.50 apiece in a September 2009 initial public offering that raised A$164 million.

Carsales.com.au currently trades at 21 times estimated earnings, compared with a multiple of 13.7 times profit for the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index.

The automotive website was founded in 1997 by Australian car dealers as a marketplace for new and used vehicles. The company has since expanded into websites for farm machinery, property, boats and recreational vehicles.

Nine Entertainment’s share sale was underwritten by UBS AG.

–Editors: Garry Smith, Chua Kong Ho

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Fenner in Melbourne at rfenner@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Neil Denslow at ndenslow@bloomberg.net