WeBuyCars shareholders kiss R7 billion goodbye
WeBuyCars lost 31% of its value in four months on the back of increased competition from cheap Chinese cars and disappointing results.
WeBuyCars, founded in 2001 by brothers Faan and Dirk van der Walt, is the dominant player in the South African secondhand car market.
It was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) on 11 April 2024 with the share price opening at R20.00.
Investors loved the WeBuyCars story, and it became a darling on the JSE. The share price increased by nearly 200% in the first fifteen months.
However, since then, the company has had a tougher time. It faced many challenges and had to adapt to high investor expectations.
Between July 2025 and May 2026, WeBuyCars’ share price declined by 40%. It was particularly hard hit over the last four months.
Between 23 January 2026 and 11 May 2026, the WeBuyCars share price plummeted by 31%, from R52.85 to R36.51.
This saw the market cap decline from approximately R22 billion to R15 billion, which destroyed R7 billion in shareholder value.
There are many reasons for this rapid decline, including increased competition from affordable Chinese cars, shareholder dilution, and shareholder expectations.
Another thing which affected investors is the sale of R866 million in WeBuyCars shares by Faan and Dirk van der Walt.
On 2 February 2026, the company announced the sale, saying it was part of their personal investment diversification and estate planning.
“The disposal formed part of a considered process of portfolio management, rebalancing and diversification,” it said.
This led some investors to question the short-term upside potential, which put pressure on the stock downwards.
WeBuyCars’ financial results and challenges
Over its latest financial year, which ended on 30 September 2025, WeBuyCars generated R26.4 billion in revenue and R935 million in profit.
The company sported 12,911 parking bays at its 18 supermarkets in seven of the nine provinces in South Africa.
It sold 179,006 cars over the year, which translates into 490 cars sold every day. This is unmatched in South Africa.
However, the company is facing many headwinds. The first is the South African economy, which remains under pressure.
Weak GDP growth led to weak consumer confidence, while high living costs weigh on discretionary spending and affect demand for high-value items like vehicles.
To make matters worse, the rapid entry and success of value-focused Chinese brands have created structural shifts in the market.
To maintain liquidity and inventory turns against these competitively priced new vehicles, WeBuyCars had to adjust its selling prices.
This shift in the market placed short-term pressure on the company’s margins to ensure its cars remained attractive to buyers.
Banks also adopted a more cautious approach to consumer credit, leading to tighter approval rates.
This poses a risk to the group because lower approval rates can reduce both vehicle sales and the highly profitable finance and insurance commission income.
To support its aggressive expansion, WeBuyCars invested heavily in onboarding and training staff well in advance of major supermarket openings.
This led to a significant increase in employee costs during the year, with the anticipated benefits of this investment not expected to materialise in the short term.
Analyst opinion on WeBuyCars
Rob Pietropaolo, trading co-head at Unum Capital, said that WeBuyCars may have been a victim of being overhyped. “Their last set of results was disappointing,” he said.
Pietropaolo said that the results reflected the impact of cheap Chinese vehicles on WeBuyCars’ financial results.
“A consumer can now get a brand new Chinese car where they would have previously bought a used vehicle,” he said.
He explained that WeBuyCars is a good and profitable company, but that the initial spike in the share price was driven by hype.
Not everyone is bearish on the stock, though. FNB published a buy trade on WeBuyCars in late February, citing constructive technical momentum
“WeBuyCars is in an aggressive growth cycle, expanding supermarkets across high-traffic regions,” it said.
“New and upgraded facilities in Rustenburg, Vereeniging, George, Polokwane, Mbombela, and large Cape Town and Pretoria significantly enhance throughput.”
It said that these expansion plans support the company’s target of 23% market share and 23,000 monthly unit sales by the 2028 financial year.
“Industry conditions such as falling interest rates and a recovery in consumer confidence further support volumes across both cash and financed purchases,” it said.
WeBuyCars financial overview
WeBuyCars operational overview
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