Swedish alternative investment firm EQT will acquire Southeast Asian property technology platform PropertyGuru in a take-private transaction which values the latter at $1.1 billion, according to a statement.
The transaction will be made through BPEA Private Equity Fund VIII, now part of EQT’s Asia investment platform.
NYSE-listed PropertyGuru’s major shareholders, including US-based investment firms TPG and KKR, have agreed to support the merger, the company said, TPG and KKR own a combined 56% of PropertyGuru’s ordinary shares.
Each ordinary share of the Singapore-headquartered company issued and outstanding immediately prior to the effective time of the acquisition will be cancelled and converted into the right to receive an amount in cash equal to $6.7 per share without interest.
“The merger consideration represents a 52% premium to PropertyGuru’s closing share price on May 21, 2024, the last unaffected trading day prior to media speculation regarding a potential transaction,” PropertyGuru said in its statement.
The company enjoyed a valuation of $1.61 billion on its listing in March 2022. It had a debut on NYSE through a successful SPAC merger with Bridgetown 2 Holdings.
The transaction with EQT is expected to close in Q4 2024 or Q1 2025, following which PropertyGuru’s shares will no longer trade on NYSE.
PropertyGuru claimed it had over 28 million property seekers and over 46,000 agents monthly, with more than 2.1 million real estate listings across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The company fell back to the red in Q1 2024 after reporting a net profit in Q3 and Q4 2023. However, it cut its net losses by 40% YoY to S$6 million ($4.46 million) in Q1 2024 compared with S$10 million the previous year. Its adjusted EBITDA also improved to S$4 million in Q1 from S$0.2 million a year ago, while increasing its adjusted EBITDA margins by 12% compared to 0.7% in Q1 2023.
EQT said on Thursday that it has set a target of $12.5 billion for its next Asia buyout vehicle, BPEA Private Equity Fund IX. The eighth fund was closed at $11.2 billion in 2022.
Some of EQT’s Southeast Asia portfolio, including from the BPEA business that it acquired in 2022, are Indonesian natural ingredients provider Indesso; Singapore-based healthcare platform MHC Asia and video game development firm Virtuos; and integrated retail platform The CrownX, and education companies VUS and ILA in Vietnam.
