Classified Ad Ventures Takes Stake in IPGA
April 16, 2009 by Emma Sorensen
Classified Ad Ventures has subscribed to a placement of 5 million shares in IPGA Ltd. IPGA is the owner of the iproperty.com family of websites which operate throughout Asia.
The placement, at a price of $0.10 per share, was made through Classified Ad Venture’s investment vehicle, CAV Investment Holdings Pty Ltd, and represents over 4 percent of the enlarged capital of IPGA. It is the first direct investment in IPGA since it was listed on the ASX in September 2007.
Simon Baker, CEO of Classified Ad Ventures, said IPGA has great potential as a company, given that the online classifieds space in Asia is in the early stages of development. He also noted the company’s strong revenue growth in 2008.
IPGA operates seven sites throughout Asia under the iproperty brand. These sites include the market leading iproperty.com.my in Malaysia, gohome.com.hk in Hong Kong, iproperty.com.sg in Singapore, iproperty.com.ph in the Philippines, vrhouse.com.tw in Taiwan, realacres.com (operating as iproperty.com) in India and iluxuaryasia.com – a regional luxury property platform. IPGA also owns the iproperty.com expo that has real estate expos in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore, a software product for agents in Singapore, and a print publication in Malaysia.
IPGA says its websites receive around 1 million monthly visitors, and have 90,000 registered users, 200,000 property listings and 5,500 agents and developers using its network of portals.
Simon Baker is the former CEO and Managing Director of the REA Group Ltd. He established Classified Ad Ventures in 2008 to serve the global classifieds business. Classified Ad Ventures provides consulting services, develops new products and services in its incubator, and invests in opportunities through CAV Investment Holdings Pty Ltd. Investments to date have been in online real estate and jobs websites.
Classified Ad Ventures is the owner of propertyportalwatch.com.
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Ugh.. not exactly a good move there… hope you guys took a really good look at their books…
Mark
Thanks for your comment.
We have thoroughly looked at the business. If you just look at the top line numbers you would be concerned. However, we looked at the business in far more detail and believe that the market leading positions in Malaysia, Hong Kong Kong and Taiwan as well as co-leadership in Singpore make this an attractive asset to invest in for the long term.
In many ways it reminds me of the early days of realestate.com.au when we were losing $6m per annum – everyone had written us off then too.
Thanks
Simon Baker
Hopefuly a seat on the board.
Right now its about consolidating that position and not trying to do too much.
fortunately traffic is still low relatively speaking ,so technology upgrades arent needed yet,this cld be a killer cost wise.
Agree Simon, good long term move and you are right with the comparison to the early days of REA. The market itself (agents, developers etc) utilization of online is also at an early stage.
Hi Simon – I hope you do well with IPGA. I’m not very familiar with their businesses, but yes they do seem a bit like REA in its early stages. I’m sure you know what you’re doing!
Good luck!
[...] Classified Ad Ventures provides consulting services to the owners and operators of classifieds sites, develops new products and services in its incubator, and invests in opportunities through CAV Investment Holdings Pty Ltd. Investments to date have been in online real estate and jobs websites, including artshub.com.au, and most recently in Asian property portal group IPGA. [...]