PropertyGuru's Australian IPO could be largest of the year

PropertyGuru Group, with backers like buyout firms TPG Capital and KKR, has an Australian IPO planned that could increase up to AU$400 million this year, according to sources.

The IPO would be one of the largest offerings this year in the country, right after Irish insurance software provider, Fineos, listing in Australia last month after an AU$190 million IPO, according to Refinitv data.

The Southeast Asian real estate platform is also backed by Emtek, an Indonesian media group, and venture capital firm Square Peg Capital. PropertyGuru received a US$ 145 million investment from KKR last year, as well.

The company is the self-proclaimed Southeast Asian leading online property group and operates in Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

PropertyGuru has also recently appointed two Australian-based directors to its Board and named a new Chairman, as well as appointed UBS and Credit Suisse as joint lead managers for the IPO.

"Over the last 12 years, we have matured as a business with both the scale and scope of our operations, so that in the last three years we delivered high growth revenue and in 2018 achieved profitability in this dynamic region of the world," CEO Hari Krishnan said in a statement.

After this, the company expects its market value to be about AU$1.2 billion.

There were only 20 IPOs in Australia in the first half of 2019, bringing it down 43 percent from the same period in 2018, says a report by consultancy EY.

A non-deal roadshow has already tested investor appetite for buying into the company, which has carried out four funding rounds in the past to raise just over S$400 million, the sources said.

An external spokesman of PropertyGuru said: "We are considering a number of funding and strategic options but no decision has been made at this time."

SOURCE PropertyGuru
Edited by V. Haviland

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