EQT to acquire real estate platform PropertyGuru in $1.1 billion deal

(Reuters) -Swedish investment firm EQT AB will acquire PropertyGuru in an all-cash deal, valuing the Singapore-based online real estate platform at $1.1 billion, the companies said on Friday.

As part of the deal, PropertyGuru’s shareholders will receive $6.70 apiece, a 7% premium to the firm’s last close on Thursday.

PropertyGuru – which went public in 2022 – will be acquired by EQT Private Capital Asia, the Swedish private equity firm’s Asia-focused buyout fund.

The offer from EQT is a 52% premium to PropertyGuru’s last close on May 21, a day before Bloomberg News first reported a potential buyout by private equity firms TPG and KKR.

KKR and TPG each hold a 29.58% and 26.52% stake in the Singaporean firm and are its top two shareholders.

TPG did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on the deal, while KKR declined to comment.

Australian real estate firm REA Group owns a more than 17% stake in PropertyGuru and said it expects around A$286 million ($189.6 million) in proceeds from the sale.

PropertyGuru was established in 2007 and provides online real estate search services in countries including Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore.

Separately, EQT raised $1.6 billion in May as it seeks to expand in Asia’s mid-market private equity market.

The Swedish company earlier in the day agreed to acquire KJ Environment from Seoul-based investment firm Genesis Private Equity.

($1 = 1.5085 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee and Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

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