Dipti Gore
Secondary transaction in Singapore-based parent, Elara Technologies, raises News Corp’s stake to about 30%
MUMBAI, 16th June, 2015: News Corp, the global, diversified media and information services company, announced that it raised its stake in the Singapore-based Elara Technologies Pte, the parent company of India’s leading digital real estate marketing and transactions services provider, PropTiger.com.
Terms of the transaction, which increased News Corp’s stake in Elara to about 30%, were not disclosed. News Corp first acquired a 25% stake in Elara in November 2014 for an announced valued of $30 million.
PropTiger has since acquired digital design startup Out of Box Interaction (OoBI) as well as adding property search portal Makaan.com to its industry-leading portfolio of offerings and capabilities.
“We strongly believe the combination of PropTiger.com and Makaan.com is best poised to be the dominant digital real-estate platform in India for years to come,” said Raju Narisetti, Senior Vice President, Strategy, for News Corp, who also chairs Elara’s Singapore-based board. “While India’s real estate sector continues to work its way through challenging macro conditions, we remain very optimistic, not only about India’s long-term potential, but also about the management team of PropTiger in its ability to execute, rationally and deliberately.”
Other major shareholders in Elara, SAIF Partners and Accel Partners, which had increased their shareholdings as part of the original News Corp investment, remain key backers of PropTiger.
Commenting on the development, Dhruv Agarwala, Co-founder, PropTiger.com said, “News Corp’s increased stake is a validation of PropTiger’s strategy to win a growing share of the digital real estate market in India through our unique service offerings and an end user experience that is second to none. We continue to leverage and benefit from News Corp’s global expertise in real estate markets.”
News Corp owns a 62% stake in REA Group, which is the operator of Australia’s leading property website, realestate.com.au. It also owns Move Inc., which operates realtor.com®
, the most up-to-date and accurate for-sale listings of any digital real estate company in the US. It also recently incubated MansionGlobal.com, a global luxury real estate website housed at Dow Jones & Company.
News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content to consumers throughout the world. The company comprises businesses across a range of media, including: news and information services, book publishing, cable network programming in Australia, digital real estate services, digital education, and pay-TV distribution in Australia. Headquartered in New York, the activities of News Corp are conducted primarily in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
PropTiger.com leverages the power of technology and data to make the home buying experience rewarding and easy-to-use. It guides customers through the entire process of buying a home, including search, property identification, price negotiation, documentation, home loan facilitation and post sales services.
PropTiger.com has also pioneered multiple technology and data driven innovations in the Indian market such as Property Portfolio, Livability and Safety Scores, Resale Price Estimates and detailed Micro-Market Trends and Analyses. Recently, PropTiger.com launched its Data Labs services for institutions, such as real estate developers, private equity investors and banks, in order to help them make better decisions using the enormous real estate data and customer insights Proptiger.com collects daily.