Frontier Digital Ventures Divested from Ghanaian Real Estate Vertical meQasa in Q4

The Malaysian headquartered online classifieds operator Frontier Digital Ventures (ASX:FDV) has divested from the leading Ghanaian real estate vertical site meQasa.

Online Marketplaces has learned that FDV divested from its 69% stake in meQasa in Q4 of 2022. Meqasa’s success as the leading property portal in the region ever since a 2017 merger garnered interest from local strategic investors, which towards the end of 2022 presented FDV with an opportunity to exit.

The portal initially attracted a US $1.2m investment from FDV in 2015 two years after launching. In 2017 FDV also acquired meQasa's main competitor, Jumia House to effectively consolidate leadership in the Ghanaian real estate classifieds market.

As a standalone entity, meQasa generated around 149,000 Australian Dollars in revenue for the first half of 2019 when it was valued at US $5.2 million. As part of FDV's West Africa reporting segment (which also includes the Nigerian real estate vertical PropertyPro which FDV remains committed to), meQasa generated close to half a million Australian Dollars in the first half of 2022 at a positive EBITDA margin.

Recently FDV has signalled an intention to manage its broad portfolio on a more regional basis with the appointment in October of InfoCasas boss Ricardo Frechou as the regional CEO of its LATAM division.

The Australian-listed company also recently declared that it "welcomed" the IPO plans of Dubai-based online marketplace operator and Zameen parent company EMPG. Frontier Digital Ventures owns a 30% stake in leading Pakistani property vertical Zameen which as of Q3 filings was the single greatest contributor to revenue and EBITDA of all FDV's portfolio companies.