March, 7 2008 – IPGA Ltd (ASX: IPP), through its wholly-owned subsidiary, iProperty Group Asia Pte Ltd, has completed its acquisition of Keagen Group Sdn Bhd, the owner and organizer of Asia’s International Home Buyer and Property Investor series of exhibitions.
Over the past three years, the International Home Buyer and Property Investor exhibition in Malaysia has grown to become the leading mid- to high-end property related event in the country, attracting over 70 of the top developers, agency and property-related companies as exhibitors. In 2008, the exhibition will expand to also take place in Hong Kong and Singapore, presenting a perfect overlap with the markets in which the iProperty.com portals are dominant. Further expansion into other countries is planned for coming years in line with the geographical expansion of the iProperty.com portals.
Patrick Grove, Executive Chairman of IPGA, noted, "We are delighted with the acquisition of the International Home Buyer and Property Investor exhibitions. The acquisition represents an exceptional strategic move for IPGA, allowing us further dominance in the property media space in Malaysia, as well as an extremely effective cross-promotional and cross-selling opportunity in all markets in which iProperty.com property portals operate.”
Mr. Grove continued, “The exhibitions not only represent an excellent promotional opportunity for the iProperty.com brand, one that is also potentially very lucrative, but allow us to strengthen our relationships with property developers throughout the region. We see the development and consolidation of such relationships as important to the ongoing success and growth of our online business.”
IPGA paid RM1 million (approx A$342,000) in shares to the vendors of the business who will continue to work with IPGA to develop the exhibitions going forward. Further payments up to a maximum total amount of a RM8 million (approx A$2.73 million) are payable dependent on performance over the coming three years and will comprise both cash and shares. All shares issued as part of the consideration will be voluntarily escrowed for a period of two years from their date of issue.
Keagen Group Sdn Bhd will be renamed iProperty Events Sdn Bhd.
The acquisition is expected to be earnings accretive in 2008.
The acquisition of the International Home Buyer and Property Investor exhibitions sees IPGA add to its market-leading online property operations in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the Philippines, and represents its latest acquisition since its purchase of Hong Kong’s leading network of property websites, the GoHome network, in November 2007
IPGA continues to seek further strategic acquisitions of leading property portals and property media businesses throughout regional markets.
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