PropertyGuru set to ramp up data, software services to boost marketplace lead
DealStreetAsia
By Michelle Teo and Kristie Neo
25 August 2021
It has been a tough two years for
PropertyGuru Group, during which time its Australian initial public offering was pulled just two days before the bell, and the COVID-19 pandemic brought its core business to a halt by keeping people indoors.
But 2021 is shaping up to be the turning point for the Singapore-based real estate listings site, following strategic acquisitions and an impending
listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
PropertyGuru is not a beneficiary of the pandemic, Hari Krishnan, the groups CEO, stated in an
interview with DealStreetAsia.
But the opportunity to invest and grow the business was there, as Krishnan told the companys board last year.
The company has operations across Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia. We said we have a feeling that our competitors in the space are
going to struggle. What if we went really aggressively, really investing and taking a five-year, six-year view? Krishnan recounted.
We need to make a couple of bold moves.
In
September last year, the company raised S$300 million from private equity majors TPG and KKR.
In May this year, PropertyGuru announced the
acquisition of the Malaysian and Thai entities of REA Group, which include iProperty Malaysia, and thinkofliving in Thailand. The transaction in Malaysia, in particular, brought a key rival into the fold and put PropertyGuru in the lead in the
country.
At the same time, Krishnan sees significant opportunity in how the real estate sector continues to be woefully lacking in data and analytics for
buyers, given the volume of transactions it hosts across key markets in Southeast Asia. We see a huge void which we are uniquely able to fill.
Early this year, the company was approached by SPACs, or US-listed blank cheque companies from the recent boom,
looking for targets to merge with.
In July, PropertyGuru confirmed a SPAC merger with Bridgetown 2 Holdings, backed by Peter Thiel and Richard Li, that
will see it list on the New York Stock Exchange by early next year, at a $1.78 billion valuation.
For me, the biggest validation to this
process is, as youll see with our disclosures to the SEC, we call out COVID as one of our top risk factors, we call out the fact that we are not a beneficiary, Krishnan said.
Unlike a lot of companies that are going public right now, were not doing it opportunistically. If anything were doing it on our weakest
footing, and if we can raise money from the savviest investors, its only upside from here.
For its 2020 financial year, PropertyGuru recorded
an 8% dip in revenues from the year before to $59.3 million, though losses after tax from operations narrowed to $8.5 million, according to regulatory filings assessed by DealStreetAsia DATA VANTAGE.
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