August 11, 2008 – IPGA Ltd (ASX: IPP), through its wholly-owned subsidiary, iProperty Group Asia Pte Ltd, has entered into an agreement to acquire a controlling stake in Horizon Infoventures Private Limited, owner of the leading Indian property buying website, RealAcres.com.
RealAcres.com is based in Mumbai and has over 211,000 property listings on its websites and approximately 100,000 unique visitors each month. The company currently focuses on the Western India market, though maintains property portals for all major cities across the country.
Mr Patrick Grove, Executive Chairman of IPGA Limited, noted, "We are delighted with the acquisition of RealAcres.com in India. We believe that application of our experience to the exciting, high-growth India market will allow us a fantastic opportunity for enormous success. We are excited to have the opportunity to work with the talented, dedicated local team to rapidly consolidate the market position of RealAcres.com and move to dominate the India market in due course,” he said.
As the Indian economy continues to bound forward into the future, its property market and its developers continue to boom in an attempt to keep up with the burgeoning middle class’s demand for new housing. Recent reports have shown that demand for new housing exceeds the supply by approximately 20m units. When this incredible demand is combined with the tremendous growth in Internet users in India, with 90-95m people expected to be online across the country by early 2010, it is clear to see that RealAcres.com is perfectly positioned to ride this wave of development and to capitalize on the enormous online advertising opportunity it presents. India was estimated to have spent A$187m in 2007 on property advertising and that number is expected to grow significantly over the next 10-20 years.
Said Smita Thorat, CEO of Horizon Infoventures, “We sought out a leading Asian group to work with us to take our business to the next level and are excited to now be a part of IPGA and the iProperty.com network.”
On completion of the entire transaction, IPGA will own 60% of the shares in the business, with an option to acquire the balance of 40% based on future earnings. On completion of the initial stage of the transaction, IPGA will invest approximately A$0.53 million in working capital in four equal tranches into the business in return for 43% of the shares in the company. Subsequently, IPGA will swap shares for a further 17%, with the price to be based on performance resulting in IPGA owning 60% of the shares in the company.
The management and vendors of RealAcres.com will be retained and will sign new executive service agreements that will see them continue to serve the business for a minimum of a further three years.
The acquisition of RealAcres.com sees IPGA add to its market-leading online property operations in
Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines, and represents its latest in a string of acquisitions since its listing on 11 September 2007.
IPGA expects to bring its suite of print, exhibition and online luxury products to the India market in partnership with Realacres.com in due course.
IPGA continues to seek further strategic acquisitions of leading property portals and complimentary businesses throughout regional markets.
For more information please contact:
Patrick Grove
Executive Chairman
IPGA Ltd
Mobile: (60) 12 269 4977
Mobile: (65) 96690369
Email: pg@iproperty.com
Cynthia Chan
Company Secretary
IPGA Ltd
Tel: (613) 9691 4900
Fax: (613) 9600 1500
Email: cchan@beconwood.com.au
About IPGA Limited (www.ipgalimited.com)
Listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, IPGA Limited (ASX:IPP) owns Asia’s No. 1 network of property websites under the iProperty.com umbrella brand (www.iproperty.com). The Company is focused on developing and operating Internet-based real estate portals with other complementary offerings in Asian markets. It currently operates consumer and business online property portals in the markets of Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Philippines, with a Heads of Agreement in place to acquire an online property portal in Thailand. With further expansion planned, IPGA is continuously working to capitalise on its market-leading positions and the rapidly growing online property advertising market throughout the region.
iProperty.com Network:
Singapore: iProperty.com Singapore
Malaysia: iProperty.com Malaysia and iLuxury.com.my
Hong Kong: GoHome.com.hk and House18.com
Philippines: iProperty.com Philippines
Events: iProperty.com EXPO
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