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The real estate advertising company began moving into Asia in 2007, when it bought Hong Kong’s SquareFoot

REA Group Limited (REA) has acquired iProperty Group Limited.

iProperty Group owns leading property portals in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand and Indonesia. Since being listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2007, iProperty has grown into one of Asia’s leading network of property websites.

REA (ASX: REA) will fund the acquisition primarily from new debt facilities totaling AUD$480 million (US$342 million) with the remainder from existing cash reserves, the company said.

REA operates Australia’s leading residential and commercial property websites, including realestate.com.au and realcommercial.com.au, European sites casa.it, atHome.lu and immoRegion.fr, and Chinese property site myfun.com.

The company made its first acquisition in Asia in 2007 with the purchase of Hong Kong’s largest English-language property magazine, SquareFoot.

Also Read: REA Group to increase stake in iProperty post selling Hong Kong biz 

Simon Henry, Co-CEO of Juwai, China’s top international real estate portal commented on the recent acquisition.

“We think the price offered meets market expectation. We see no impact in this transaction on Australia’s largest source of international buyers, which is China. iProperty is mostly a Malaysian business, with smaller operations in a couple of outliers in markets like Thailand. Malaysia’s [market] is a growing one,” Henry told e27.

The acquisition is expected to be completed during Q1 of 2016.  REA is more than 60 per cent owned by News Corporation.

Also Read: Can new Shanghai property platform Zunest challenge established player Juwai? 

Image Credit: Shutterstock 

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