PropertyGuru Grows Revenue Ahead of SPAC Merger

The Southeast Asian real estate portal company PropertyGuru Group has released an update on its performance in 2021. According to a press release, highlights of the company's year include:

• Revenue up 22.7% year-on-year to S$100.7
• New property listings on the group's Vietnamese portal (Batdongsan.com.vn) increased 4.5 times in December compared to August as the country eased lockdown measures
• iProperty.com.my successfully integrated into the group's operations in Malaysia where PropertyGuru Group now enjoys >90% market share

The revenue achieved by PropertyGuru in 2021, in particular, will be encouraging for the company as it prepares for its public debut via a SPAC merger with the Peter Thiel-backed Bridgetown 2 Holdings. The S$100.7m (USD 74.2m) over the period beat company expectations by 3.3%.

Hari V. Krishnan, CEO and Managing Director, PropertyGuru, said: “Despite the uneven recovery from COVID-19 across Southeast Asia, PropertyGuru continued to execute well in 2021 delivering strong financial results. Southeast Asia’s growth is being propelled by the long-term fundamentals of urbanization, digitalization and a rising middle class, and we exited 2021 with good momentum in the real estate sector in our key markets, as COVID restrictions eased.

Although no figures for profit were forthcoming from the company, PropertyGuru expects to return to positive EBITDA in 2022 as it begins to reap the benefits of the REA Group assets integration and investments made in marketing and staff. It also expects revenue growth to accelerate further to 44% with projections of S$145m for the calendar year.

The next big date in the calendar for the company is March 15th when Bridgetown 2 will hold an Extraordinary General Meeting for shareholders to approve the business combination with PropertyGuru and in doing so, take the company public on the NASDAQ.