July 15, 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 Info-Portal Tech International Company Limited, owner of the market-leading property buying website in Taiwan, VRHouse.com.tw (VRHouse).
VRHouse is the number one online property portal in Taiwan as measured by user traffic, developer clients and revenue. The company is based in Taipei and operates VRHouse and all its related sites, all of which are Chinese language. In total, over 225,000 unique users view and use VRHouse property listings and services each month.
VRHouse is expected to be profitable for the year of 2008 and is expected to contribute annualised revenues in excess of A$1,000,000 to the IPGA group of companies for IPGA’s 2008 financial year on a pro-forma basis.
Mr Patrick Grove, Executive Chairman of IPGA Limited, noted, "We are delighted with the acquisition of VRHouse in Taiwan. Our experience in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia allows us to bring a strong value-add proposition to VRHouse. We also look forward to working with the dynamic, entrepreneurial local team to dominate the Taiwan market and the region at large,” he said.
“Most importantly, this acquisition completes our ownership of market-leading property portals across the Chinese diaspora in the region. We now hold the unique position of operating the leading online properties in all significant Chinese markets ex-China, allowing us an exceptional strategic opportunity. Taiwan’s broadband penetration is exceptional and recent moves to open the market to mainland Chinese investment means nothing but good news is on the horizon for the property market in Taiwan.”
“We are extremely pleased that we have been able to acquire the clear leader in the Taiwan online property market. IPGA’s sites and listings network is now viewed by over 800,000 unique users in Asia Pacific each month, said Mr Grove.
“The Taiwan property advertising market for 2007 was estimated to be A$256 million. We estimate that only 2% of this is currently being spent online, compared to 15% in Australia. Hence, this is potentially an extremely lucrative market for IPGA as property advertising money moves online in line with global trends,” he added.
“We are further excited by the recent political events and strengthening of ties with China which is expected to lead to a significant increase in mainland Chinese investing in Taiwanese property. We plan to position VRHouse as a key media property that facilitates this process.”
Said Jackson Cheng, Chairman of Info-Portal Tech International Company Limited, “We are extremely excited by this transaction and believe that under the IPGA and iProperty.com umbrella VRHouse can continue to grow and dominate the online property market in Taiwan.”
On completion of the entire transaction, IPGA will own 51% of the shares in the business, with an option to acquire the balance of 49% based on future events. On completion of the initial stage of the transaction, IPGA will immediately invest approx A$0.53 million in working capital into the business in return for 25% of the shares in the company, including preference shares giving IPGA 51% of the voting rights. This structure gives IPGA immediate control over VRHouse. A further 26% of the company’s shares will be purchased from the existing shareholders over the next 2 years at a price to be determined by the performance of VRHouse over that two year period.
The management of VRHouse 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 VRHouse sees IPGA add to its market-leading online property operations in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the Philippines, and represents its latest in a string of acquisitions since its listing on 11 September 2007.
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 / (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 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. Recently, the Group made history by winning the highly prestigious CNBC Asia Pacific Property Awards in the “Best Property Portal” category for 4 of our websites Malaysia (www.iproperty.com.my), Singapore (www.iproperty.com.sg), Hong Kong (www.gohome.com.hk) and Philippines (www.iproperty.com.ph).
IPGA Network:
Singapore: iProperty.com Singapore
Malaysia: iProperty.com Malaysia
Hong Kong: GoHome.com.hk and House18.com
Philippines: iProperty.com Philippines
Events: iProperty.com EXPO
Luxury: iLuxuryasia.com
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