PropertyGuru seeks as much as $256m in Australia IPO

The company will price its Chess Depository Interests (CDIs) at A$3.70-4.50 apiece, according to a prospectus. If demand is strong enough to hit the top end of the range, a total of 84.5 million CDIs will be sold, including 43.9 million held by existing investors. This would give PropertyGuru an indicative market capitalization of A$1.36 billion.

Neither TPG or KKR will sell any shares in the offering, which means their holdings will be diluted to 26% and 23.3%, respectively, based on a price at the midpoint of the indicative range. Several other investors will make partial exits, including Square Peg Capital, Indonesian media company Emtek, the founders, and members of the management team. Emtek would take A$74.7 million off the table, reducing its stake to 7.33%, while Square Peg would generate proceeds of A$22.5 million and be left with 4.37%.

Founded in 2007 by Steve Melhuish and Jani Rautiainen, PropertyGuru operates digital property classifieds marketplaces in Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. It claims a 60% market share, significantly more than its nearest competitor. According to Frost & Sullivan, annual real estate advertising spend in these markets was S$949 million ($688 million) in 2018, while developer project marketing expenditure was S$2.2 billion. Mortgage financing was worth a further S$303 million.

The company carries more than 2.4 million new property listings every month and publishes over 500 articles intended to offer market insights. It provides information products and services to property seekers to assist them in their searches and sells advertising and listing services to developers and agents. The revenue split between developers and agents is roughly one-quarter to three-quarters.

For the 12 months ended December 2018, PropertyGuru recorded S$59.5 million in revenue, up from S$44.8 million the previous year, while EBITDA shifted from negative S$7.9 million to S$4.5 million. Over the same period, the net loss narrowed from S$16 million to S$12.9 million. In the first half of 2019, revenue was S$39 million, EBITDA was negative S$33.5 million, and the net loss was S$43.5 million.

“Our company was founded with the goal of bringing access and transparency to the real estate sector and we have achieved this goal through the continual evolution of our technology and digital solutions. Through immersive content and proprietary technology, we aim to provide our property seekers, agent and developer customers with the right insights exactly when they need them,” CEO Hari V. Krishnan, said in a statement.

He added that part of the proceeds of the offering would be channeled into growth strategies, which includes the potential expansion into several adjacent areas, such as mortgage financing and various data-based offerings.

PropertyGuru has raised S$436 million in private funding since inception. TPG, Emtek and Square Peg all participated in a A$175 million Series C round in 2015, while KKR committed S$200 million in Series C funding last October.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Southeast Asia
• IPO
• Technology
• Real estate
• Singapore
• TPG Capital
• KKR
• Square Peg Capital
• Australia