ANZ Takes A$50M Minority Stake in View Media Group

ANZ bank has taken a minority stake in View Media Group (VMG), the Australian real estate listing business backed by former Domain CEO Anthony Catalano. The size of the stake that ANZ took in VMG remains undisclosed.

VMG was founded last year with Catalano, and fellow investor billionaire Alex Waislitz (executive chairman at Thorney Investment Group), setting out the Group's mission to disrupt the real estate transaction market with a "digital real estate superstore".

According to the company's description on LinkedIn, VMG "has aggregated a range of proptech assets including portals, ad tech, lead generation, lead management solutions, media planning and buying, AI services, data and connections to form a property ecosystem where each business drives value to each other and offers customers a premium end-to-end experience."

The company's real estate portal Realestateview.com.au competes with the likes of Realestate.com.au, Domain and Homely in the Australian residential market.

ANZ, one of the four biggest banks in Australia, will take a seat on the VMG board as a part of the investment, and the lender intends to establish an exclusive financial services partnership to complement VMG's listing business and online utilities service.

ANZ said the investment supports its long-term strategy of establishing services that make it easier to buy, rent or own property. The investment will also leverage strong growth in online banking and home loan sectors. ANZ has recently invested in its digital banking arm ANZ Plus, with plans to start offering mortgages through the platform in 2023.