Great coverage in today's The Australian Financial Review on the Digital Classifieds Group's acquisition of Dubizzle Group's Filipino and Indonesian assets. (No comments on the picture ... the AFR is 20 years out of date!)
Here is the text for those that can not get access ...
"An Australian online classifieds marketplace is beefing up its Asian footprint ahead of a potential ASX listing.
Digital Classifieds Group is backed by former REA group chief executive Simon Baker.
Street Talk understands Melbourne-based Digital Classifieds Group, backed by former REA group chief executive Simon Baker, is poised to acquire Dubizzle’s Indonesian and Filipino assets.
Dubizzle, formerly Emerging Markets Property Group, operates a classifieds website popular with expatriates in the United Arab Emirates and real estate marketplace Lamudi in South East Asia.
The deal is expected to propel DCG to the number two position in the region and see it go up against the dominant player, REA Group and PropertyGuru, a Singaporean company backed by private equity bigwigs TPG Capital and KKR & Co.
Founded in 2013, DGC operates a portfolio of real estate and classifieds marketplaces including realestate.com.kh in Cambodia, bproperty in Bangladesh and hausples.com.pg in Papua New Guinea. It has around 450 staff, mostly based in Asia.
The company is backed by Baker and his long-time partner Joe Hanna, the co-founder of the PropTech Group. Also on board are Tim White and Peter Blackshaw, the former chief executive and founder of Allhomes which was sold to Fairfax’s Domain for $50 million-plus in 2014, and Antipodes portfolio manager James Rodda.
Domain is part-owned by Nine Entertainment, the publisher of The Australian Financial Review.
DCG is understood to be targeting a 2024 initial public offering which would help it fund future growth via M&A and give its long list of shareholders a liquidity event. To date, the company has been funded by private capital including Cambodian private equity firm Belt Road Capital Management.
Should it list, DCG’s closest comparables would be market darling REA and Frontier Digital Ventures, which owns stakes in marketplace businesses in emerging economies.
Dubizzle is similarly working on an IPO and has tapped Citigroup and HSBC, according to reports. The firm raised $US200 million via Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners last year."
